The importance of business ethics in large real estate firms in the United Kingdom

Ethics is a system of moral principles where there is a distinction between acting in a good way or in a wrong way. In 1943, French writer Somerset Maugham stated that people accept the importance of the virtues of integrity and self-sacrifice, but that this meant nothing compared powerful incentive of self-interest. In contrast to what he referred as ‘correct virtues become habits’, a great part of real estate business nowadays operate in the exact opposite way. A great deal of real estate agents act with the wrong ethical principles. Real estate is a business which involves a series of vague regulations and laws considering the matter of business ethics. There has been an increase of reports of ethical financial misconduct regarding real estate offices in the United Kingdom. To manage the code of conduct in different firms it is of great importance that the regulations are unambiguous and clear in order to avoid doubt and uncertainty. The fact that there is still a misinterpretation of the ethical regulations inhibits real estate firms from implanting the right code of conduct to surveyors and delays the growth of the real estate market in the United Kingdom.