Reforms Signal Positive Change For Real Estate Profession

Some of the most important reforms to real estate practice in over 30 years will be introduced in New South Wales in July of this year.

The overwhelming need for positive change in our regulatory environment was identified over 10 years ago when it was becoming evident that the Federal Government’s desire for increased competition in various industry sectors was starting to have negative impacts. The opportunity to rort the system by unscrupulous training organisations was resulting in an abundance of providers ripping off the system and producing either incompetent or incapable students with the necessary qualifications but without the necessary skills to do the required jobs. Real Estate was right in the thick of this environment and the results are still being seen today.

The reforms being implemented on 1 July 2018 hope to address that by bringing more stringent course content, with increased units for certificate of registration courses and a focus on foundation knowledge that will enable students to then progress their careers in both sales and property management and progress to their licence Cert IV qualification. In fact, this career path progression for those involved in the areas of Advice and negotiation is singularity the most significant part of the reform package. Anyone desiring to progress their career must within four years of obtaining their certificate of registration complete the balance of units required for the Cert IV. This will result in better trained, more highly skilled and more capable participants in the industry and that is the outcome REINSW set out to achieve.

We saw that the better the education, ongoing training, skills and standards the better the performance of our people and the better the experiences and outcomes for property consumers.

The reforms will be far reaching including new disclosure requirements and the introduction of the new licence class of Licensee in Charge a new education stand will be set. This class will require a Diploma qualification and as a result, a new course has been developed with the desire to build business skills for business owners. Better run businesses mean better run teams and better consumer experiences and outcomes.

This new qualification will also mirror the impending professional standards program to finally create a uniform set of standards for the industry in Australia under a Federal Government recognised Professional Standards Scheme that will see our industry finally achieve professional status. This step could not be possible without the NSW Real Estate Reform package raising the bar to a new Industry wide height to enable the professional standards bar to be raised even higher. For further information in regard to the reforms go to www.reinsw.com.au/reforms. 

John Cunningham is the Immediate Past President of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales. John commenced his career in real estate in 1977 with a very simple philosophy—to establish business relationships built on trust. He opened Cunninghams Property in 1991 with his wife, Ann, in Sydney.