With Labour’s significant win last week in the general election, we can all expect some changes in the coming months on the property front.  This morning, the appointment of Matthew Pennycook as the new Housing Minister was announced.  The Negotiator reports ‘In 2023 he also said he’d want to see RoPA implemented.’ 

In thinking about qualifications in property, you will also note that Propertymark Qualifications announced a couple of weeks ago, that they are changing the format of their level 3 tests in lettings and sales.   

There are still 4 units to be assessed – 2 generic mandatory units: 

• The Role of the Property Professional 

• The Practice of a Property Professional 

Followed by a legislation unit: 

• General Law and Practice 

A second legislation unit depends on your specialist area – sales, lettings or commercial, and which of the devolved nations you operate in.  For example, if you operated lettings in Chepstow in South East Wales and let property in Gloucestershire also, you would take units 1, 2 and 3 and 2 x unit 4 to accommodate lettings and the different legislation in Wales and England. 

• Residential Lettings, Property Management and Practice 

Or for sales  

• Sale of Residential Property  

Each unit assessment consists of 30 questions of different styles (multiple choice, multiple response, drag and drop, matching, and list style) which must be answered within 45 minutes. A mark of 60% must be achieved to receive a Pass and 80% to gain a Distinction. 

At Knights, we have supported those learners who want to take the ARLA test to accompany the apprenticeship (please note this is not mandatory), by basing the legislation knowledge elements on the Propertymark syllabus, which we will continue to do.  Over the coming weeks, we will be tweaking our legislation material to accommodate the re-ordering of the Propertymark test as well as the inevitable changes to legislation that we are likely to see with a new Government.