Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between formal ethics and ethics in practice in the empirical context of real estate agents (REAs) working in the residential housing market, including owner-occupied houses and owner-occupied apartments, in Sweden. The paper investigates problems with the Swedish middleman model of real estate agency with regard to the acceptance among REAs of borderline professional behavior.

Design/methodology/approach: We report on a survey distributed to all Swedish licensed residential REAs to investigate their attitudes towards eight scenarios displaying borderline ethical behavior. Firstly, the means of each scenario were calculated, investigating signs of distance between formal ethics and ethics in practice. Secondly, logistic regressions were run for each scenario separately, thereby investigating factors affecting misconduct among REAs.

Findings: The empirical results show a clear difference between formal ethics and ethics in practice and also illustrate that some scenarios of borderline ethical behavior are creating greater problems for the REAs.

Practical implications: In Sweden, the seller is the principal, assigning the REA to sell a house or apartment, but the regulation is clear on the role of the licensed REA as responsible for promoting an informed and fair sales process where the buyer is safe to act without their own representative. Our study contributes with information to policymakers on possible areas for the development of the middleman model.

Originality/value: The paper is the first to empirically investigate the middleman model of a Swedish real estate agency in relation to the business ethics of the agents. The use of scenarios in close relation to the everyday working context of REAs as tests of ethics of practice is also of original methodological value to investigate possible diversions of professionals from national regulations.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the level of professionalization of the real estate broker's occupation in Victoria, Australia, and Sweden. As previous studies have indicated that the real estate agent occupation in both regions is experiencing low levels of trust, an analysis of the level of professionalization is warranted. Design/methodology/approach: The data used in the analysis in this paper have been gathered from a number of different high-quality sources. In Sweden, information has been obtained from the Swedish Real Estate Agents Inspectorate, the Association of Swedish Real Estate Agents and the Swedish Real Estate Agents Association, and Real Estate Statistics. For the Victorian case, information has been obtained from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, which is the leading professional body in organizing real estate agents. Furthermore, information has also been sourced from the Business Licensing Authority as well as Consumer Affairs Victoria. The focus of the analysis has been on the institutional changes of the real estate profession, including the education required to become an agent, the legislation and supervision of real estate agents and the role of the professional bodies that organize the real estate agents. 10; Findings: The analysis shows that both the real estate brokerage market in Victoria and Sweden could be characterized as mature. Using the definition of a profession from Millerson (1964), the authors conclude that the brokerage industry has a number of the characteristics of a profession such as a long albeit interdisciplinary education, strong professional bodies, code of conduct and some level of self-regulation. Research limitations/implications: This research examines two countries, both considered mature in their house market process. Findings may be very different if the research methodology was applied to house markets that do not exhibit the same level of regulatory control. Practical implications: Even though the real estate occupation can be considered as a semi-profession, there is still room for improvement when it comes to how consumers perceive the trustworthiness of real estate agents. Therefore, the professional bodies ought to strive to find ways on increasing the status and trustworthiness of the profession. These could include increasing the transparency as well as continuing education for its members. Social implications: Users of real estate services need to have confidence in the skills and expertise of real estate agents they engage. The magnitude of the monies associated with real estate transactions should cause users to seek out agents who are proficient in what they do, and to this end, the professionalism of agents is critical to the provision of accurate and informative information to guide users toward positive and beneficial outcomes. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes and compares the development of the real estate profession in Victoria and Sweden, using theories from the study of professions.

Den svenska fastighetsmäklaren intar en roll som oberoende mellanman medomsorgsplikt mot både köpare och säljare, vilket skiljer sig från hurfastighetsmäklaryrket är organiserat på de flesta andra håll i världen. Därav är densvenska modellen värd att studera och analysera. I Sverige regleras yrket i lag.Utövarnas regelefterlevnad kontrolleras av Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI). Ettviktigt begrepp är ”god fastighetsmäklarsed”. Vad som bedöms vara ”godfastighetsmäklarsed” bestäms genom praxis från FMI och förvaltningsdomstolarna.En disciplinpåföljd från FMI kan bestå av erinran, varning eller återkallelse avregistrering, vilket medför ett yrkesförbud. En disciplinpåföljd kan överklagas tillförvaltningsdomstolarna.

Denna avhandling består av en sammanhållande kappa och fyra artiklar sombeskriver fyra olika studier som gjorts för att bättre förstå förutsättningarna för deindivider som verkar som fastighetsmäklare på den svenska bostadsmarknaden. Detövergripande syftet är att beskriva och analysera fastighetsmäklares yrkesroll i ensvensk kontext och speciellt deras roll som oberoende mellanman. Med utgångspunkti tre forskningsfrågor används både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder för att samlain och analysera primära och sekundära data. Resultaten visar att verksamma svenskafastighetsmäklare balanserar de utmaningar som kan rymmas inom rollen somoberoende mellanman, men det finns också vissa gränsdragningsproblem avseende”god fastighetsmäklarsed”.

FMI utdelar disciplinpåföljder till fastighetsmäklare vid regelöverträdelser. Att ivardagen förhålla sig till regelverk och praxis är svårare för vissa kategorierfastighetsmäklare: yngre fastighetsmäklare får oftare än äldre påföljden erinran, äldrefår oftare än yngre påföljden varning, och fastighetsmäklare verksamma i storstad fåroftare påföljden varning jämfört med fastighetsmäklare på landsbygden.Fastighetsmäklaryrket och professionsutvecklingen studeras i en jämförande studiemellan Australien (Victoria) och Sverige. De svenska branschorganisationerna –Mäklarsamfundet och Fastighetsmäklarförbundet (FMF) – är delaktiga i professionsutvecklingen,bland annat som huvudmän för Fastighetsmarknadens Reklamationsnämnd(FRN) som agerar enligt lagen (2015:671) om alternativ tvistlösning ikonsumentförhållanden. Avhandlingen ger vidare förslag till utveckling av såvälytterligare forskning som av praktiken.

The Swedish real estate agent has a role as an independent intermediary with a dutyof care towards both buyers and sellers, which differs from how the brokerageprofession is organized in most other parts of the world. Sweden is unique and theeffects of the Swedish model is therefore worth studying. In Sweden, the profession isregulated by law and practitioners' compliance with regulations is supervised by theSwedish Estate Agents Inspectorate (FMI). A sanction from the FMI may be areminder, warning or revocation of registration, which basically is a professional ban.An important concept is "sound estate agent practice". What is considered to be soundestate agent practice is determined by the decisions from the FMI and the courts. Twoprofessional associations – Mäklarsamfundet and Fastighetsmäklarförbundet – areinvolved in the development of practices that govern how the Swedish real estateagent should act as the independent intermediary between sellers and buyers in thehousing market.

This dissertation consists of a binder and four articles. The overall purpose is todescribe and analyze the real estate agent's professional role in a Swedish context andespecially their role as independent intermediaries. Based on three researchquestions, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to collect and analyzeprimary and secondary data.

A summary of the results show that active Swedish real estate agents generally balancethe challenges that can be accommodated within the role of independentintermediary, but that demarcation regarding sound estate agent practice createsundesirable interpretation problems. Relating to practice in everyday life is moredifficult for certain categories of brokers: younger and older brokers as well as brokersin big cities. It is also these who are to a greater extent receives sanctions for violationsin the professional practice by the supervisory authority (FMI). The dissertation alsoaddresses the concept of professional development and a comparison with Australia(Victoria) and existing theory indicates that the Swedish real estate agent'sprofessional practice should be seen as a semi-profession. The dissertation alsoprovides suggestions for the development of further research as well as for thedevelopment of practice.