On 9 March 2026, South Africa’s first real estate EISA sitting went ahead, with no finished exam paper, impossible time limits, and candidates crying in the venue. The complaints that followed paint a picture of a system that was nowhere near ready.

From 1 July 2024, new estate agents are to complete the Occupational Certificate: Real Estate Agent (SAQA ID 118714) at NQF Level 4 – a 10 to 12-month programme of knowledge modules, practical skills and workplace experience. The EISA is the national, closed-book exam that concludes that programme, administered by a QCTO-accredited assessment centre. Pass it, receive your Occupational Certificate (up to three months later), and only then can you register for the PPRA’s own Professional Designation Examination (PDE 4). No EISA pass, no PDE. No PDE, no full non-principal practitioner status.

The Property Practitioners Act allows 180 days for a candidate to qualify and write the PDE, with an optional 180-day extension. The PPRA, acknowledging that it was unworkable, extended the compliance period to 27 months from the date of a candidate’s first Fidelity Fund Certificate. Even that is now being exceeded.The exam was supposed to be a milestone, the first sitting of the External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA) for estate agent candidates in South Africa. Instead, it has become the clearest possible illustration of what happens when a national exam is rolled out before it is ready.

The next EISA sitting is in October 2026. Results will most likely not be released in time for the February 2027 PDE. That means candidates writing in October cannot write their PDE until May 2027 at the earliest – more than two years after starting their qualification. For anyone who fails and must re-sit, add another full cycle.

Remarks from students

“The entire experience has left us traumatised. We are not guinea pigs, and we did not pay R12 000 to be used as guinea pigs by SSETA and QCTO.”

“There is a very real possibility that some FFC certificates could expire during this process, requiring candidates to renew them at additional cost — because they cannot proceed to their PDE4 until the EISA has been passed.”

“By writing our ID numbers, it now appears on record that we agreed to open-book conditions — even though the exam was not written under open-book conditions. Many of us felt very uncomfortable and quite humiliated.”

“I work for Chas Everitt and do not deal with developments at all, nor was this even a scenario focused on in our course material. How are we supposed to show we can apply our knowledge when none of it is even relevant?”

“None of the work we were told to study was even in this exam. We were left feeling utterly disappointed and incompetent — and we were not.”

“Scrap our exam, refund our money, and let us move on to PDE 4. Whatever this was is totally unacceptable.”

Jan Le Roux, CE of Rebosa, said“ Without urgent reform, the current training standards will continue to obstruct access to the sector, frustrate transformation, and prevent new candidates from earning a living in the very industry they are trying to join.”