Tight control for real estate

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 31

Tight control for real estate

The shark-faced real estate agent who diddled you into buying a house for 5200,000, which was floodprone, riddled with borer and due to be demolished in five years time to make way for a motorway, is a caricature of the past. New Zealand’s real estate profession is one of the most tightly-controlled professions in the world. The 1976 Real Estate Act demands of licensees that they practise the ideals of honesty and integrity as they are laid down in the Real Estate Institute’s code of ethics.

It ensures that every licensed person, from salesman to agent, is of good repute and character, and remains so, and it provides severe penalties for anyone contravening its measures. The solidarity that the act

gives is evidenced today by the sum of more than $350,000 held in a fidelity guarantee fund. Since the fund’s establishment, there have been few calls on it, which reflects not only the strict measures of the act, but also the manner in which the institute administers it

The act allows no one, unless he is the owner, to sell real estate or manage properties for reward without a current licence issued by a specially-created board. It also lays down the criteria which must be met before a licence can be issued.

The licensing of agents and salesmen not only strongly relies on character but also on the experience and education of the li-. cenceholder.

A would-be salesman undertakes a 10-assignment course, covering contract and agency law, real estate legislation and appraisal. After students have completed the course and their character has been assessed, they are issued with a certificate to sell or manage property. This is Stage One. Stage Two is a set of five papers (six papers from January 1 next year) based on studies made at the various technical institutes in New Zealand, and through the Technical Correspondence Institute. The third and final stage consists of further studies and four examination papers. Completion of Stage Two, provided there is a background of three years full time in the profession from the last five, can allow the

Licensing Board to grant the status of “qualified person” (the least qualification for anyone managing a real estate office.)

To gain the full status of a real estate agent, all of the examinations must be passed, and the previously mentioned time span must also be met. The Real Estate Institute is constantly upgrading its examination syllabus, and is soon to introduce a more specialised course in property management. It keeps in constant touch with universities where there are business management courses, and education data from overseas, especially Australia, keeps the institute up to date with the latest trends. In its zeal for better

education standards within the profession, the institute’s aim is also to raise the status of the real estate profession to a level similar to that enjoyed, for example, by the legal profession, wherein there is recognition of specialised expertise. Real estate agents today provide a fully-integrated service to their principals but there is still a need, many believe, for public recognition that where negotiations take place for property, there is a need for a licensed agent, just as there is a need for a lawyer when legal negotiations are carried out. The fact remains that real estate in New Zealand is under control, and it is just a matter of time before universal recognition of this allows the profession to take its place close to the top of the tree, as it is elsewhere in the free world.

It is an indisputable fact that the best guide to the state of the New Zealand economy is the state of the country’s real estate market.

This, if for no other reason, gives real estate agents a very real and integral role to play in the society of today.