Real Estate Agent’s Commission (Comissão de Corretagem)

The real estate agent’s commission is the fee paid to a real estate agent licensed by CRECI (the regional real estate brokers’ council) in exchange for the brokerage work that results in a completed deal between buyer and seller. Legally, it is treated as a professional fee, governed by Articles 722 to 729 of the Civil Code.

The right to the commission arises the moment the deal is closed as a direct result of the agent’s work, regardless of whether the final contract is signed later.

• Reference percentage: COFECI Resolution 1,516/2012 sets a range of 6% to 8% for urban properties. In Florianópolis’s high-end market, 6% is the most common rate.
• Who pays: by established custom, the commission is paid by the seller. In developer sales, the STJ has held that the charge must be clearly disclosed to the consumer (STJ Topic 938).
• Exclusivity: when there’s a brokerage contract with an exclusivity clause, the agent is entitled to the full commission even if the seller closes the sale directly during the exclusivity period (Article 726 of the Civil Code).
• Deal falls through: if the deal doesn’t close because one of the parties backs out after accepting a proposal, the commission may still be owed in full by the party who backed out (Article 725 of the Civil Code).

In Florianópolis, the high-end market mostly charges 6%, with negotiated variations on properties above R$3 million or in swap transactions. The agent must hold an active CRECI-SC license at the time of the brokerage work.