Estate agency licensee in HK
What this register publishes today, what is missing, and the smallest change that would move it up.
What was found
The third jurisdiction in this index where the register that counts is a room. Section 13 of the ordinance requires the authority to maintain a Register holding names, licence numbers and, for current licensees, the registered address, and that Register is open free of charge for public inspection at the authority’s office in Wanchai, with certified extracts available. The online Licence List states plainly that it is not that Register, that the information obtained should not be used for any other purpose, and that anyone wanting registered addresses or the historical periods of a licence should come and search in the office. One detail is worth borrowing: the ordinance separately requires every licensee to hold an address in Hong Kong to which all communications and notices may be sent. A mandatory address for service is the same idea as a digital domicile, built out of paper.
What it publishes
| Check | Answer | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A public page per licence | Yes | Gives a reader something to look at and a checker something to archive and attest against. |
| A bulk export | No | Lets a consumer hold the whole list instead of fetching one licence at a time, and lets anyone hash it. |
| Machine readable | No | A CSV or JSON rather than a page built for a browser. Decides whether checking can be automated at all. |
| Signed | No | Makes the file impossible to forge or mirror convincingly. Nothing reaches grade A without it. |
The next step
Give every licence a stable address
The register exists but lives behind a search form, so there is nothing to link to, nothing to archive and nothing to attest against. A permanent address per licence costs little and moves this row to grade C on its own.
A grade describes a register, not the authority behind it and not the quality of its supervision. An authority can run an excellent register and still sit at grade D because it is a search form.
If this row is wrong, it gets corrected with the correction published beside it. The index is useful only if it can be argued with. Tell the lab.