Cuba makes another job legal - real estate agents

Cuba makes another job legal: real estate agents

Published: Wednesday, 2 Oct 2013 | 10:34 AM ET

By: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | CNBC Chief International Correspondent



Much attention was given to Cuba's recent decision to allow its athletes

to compete for foreign professional teams for the first time since the

1959 Castro revolution. Less noticed was another, and perhaps more

important, labor reform: the legalization of real estate agents.

Until now, real estate agents have had to work in the shadows, fearing

arrest. When CNBC traveled to Cuba last year, our news crew tried on

more than one occasion to speak with individuals who were working on

bringing buyers and sellers of homes together. No one returned our

calls—presumably because they were afraid to talk to a foreign news

crew. (See the embedded video for a more detailed report, from 2012.)



CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera has the details on the changes that

allows Cubans to buy and sell homes and cars, and the 181 categories of

jobs for those who want to be self-employed, as the Cuban government is

working on "perfecting socialism."

Now, it appears they might be allowed to emerge from the shadows and

give a push to a nascent real estate market on the island.



This latest move is one of a series of changes the communist government

has made in order to improve dire economic conditions.



Until a few years ago, everyone on the island was supposed to work for

the government—from doctors, to farmers, to waitresses and everyone in

between. Everyone was, in essence, a government employee. For real

estate agents, at least, that appears to have changed.



—By Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. Follow her on Twitter at @MCaruso_Cabrera.



Source: "Cuban private jobs: Cuba makes real estate agents legal" -

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101080613