New player welcomes real estate reforms

Media release: May 29, 2007

New player welcomes real estate reforms

New national real estate firm The Joneses says industry reforms announced by the government today are an important step towards restoring consumer trust in the industry.

Partner Chris Taylor welcomed the announcement by the government that it would create a new industry regulatory body responsible for agent registration and discipline, and that membership of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand would become voluntary.

“Providing an independent complaints process for consumers is important,” he said. “We hope this will go some way to helping to rebuild consumer confidence and creating a better industry.”

The Joneses, which had been facing disciplinary action for saying that consumers deserved better service from the industry, pays its real estate agents a salary and sells homes for a fixed fee regardless of the value of the home sold.

It has estimated that Kiwis would save $600 million a year if they sold their homes using this method rather than paying real estate agents commission – the traditional method still used in the market.

Mr Taylor said that the current system had been designed by real estate agents for real estate agents and was all about safeguarding the interests of agents rather than putting the customer first.

“A great many agents support what the government is doing, believing it is high time that higher standards were promoted and supported to provide greater consumer protection and to rebuild trust in the industry.”

He said that there was no reason why selling a home had to be such a stressful event.

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