Source: Radio New Zealand
The complaints related to customer service, skill and care, disclosure and misleading advertising. (File photo) 123RF
The Real Estate Authority is fielding a record number of complaints about real estate salespeople amid challenging housing market conditions.
The authority’s 2025 annual report noted a 35 percent increase in formal complaints in the year to June 30, to 487.
It said 9 percent of licensees subject to complaints had findings of misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct made against them.
The authority said complaints related to customer service, skill and care, disclosure and misleading advertising.
Poor communication was also a common theme.
But the authority said many did not raise issues that justified strong regulatory intervention.
Chief executive Belinda Moffat said the results indicated that most real estate licensees were maintaining high standards of professional conduct.
“REA is holding to account those who don’t.”
But she said the increase in consumer dissatisfaction needed to be a focus for the industry and said some cases raised complex and serious matters.
“Licensees are expected to maintain high standards and to have the skills to navigate challenging market conditions. Fairness, transparency, skill and care are critical expectations of the conduct regulatory system we oversee.”
She said the increase in complaints highlighted the complexity of the real estate transaction process.
The provision of quality information was important to support good decision-making, she said.
There are 15,692 people with active real estate licenses in New Zealand including 12,300 sales people, 1930 individual agents and 605 branch managers.
But that is almost three times the number of monthly residential property sales.
There were 6346 sales across the country in September, according to the Real Estate Institute.
“We were particularly pleased to see the 18 percent increase in branch managers this year given the important role they play as supervisors of salespeople,” Moffat said.
In 2023, there were 15,870 licences, down from 16,902 in September 2022.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
