The Supervision Guidelines, issued by NSW Fair Trading, for NSW property agents states that a selling agent MUST review their opinion of price for a residential property being offered for sale on a weekly basis. If they decide that their opinion of price needs to be reviewed, then this must be forwarded in writing to the vendor (email is the best option) together with “good reason” for the change in opinion. This “good reason” needs to detail why the agent is amending their opinion of price and include new comparables, feedback from potential purchases, other reasons such as changes to interest rates etc.

NSW Fair Trading have announced changes to CPD commencing on 23 March 2023. There are no changes for Assistant Agents – still need to complete 3 Units of Competency each year towards their licence qualification. The new CPD requirements for a Class 1 and a Class 2 agent are 4 hours of training for each category of licence. It is more about topics this year, than anything else. So the initial training needs to cover 4 hours and then the additional training for any additional categories of licence need to address 3 compulsory topics for each of those additional licence categories.

An agent is legislatively required to weekly review their opinion of price for all residential properties that they are selling. If they amend their opinion of price, either higher or lower, they must inform their vendor in writing (best done in an email), and they need to include their new amended opinion of price and their reasons for the change. This reasoning needs to be more than simply “market forces”. An agent needs to look more closely at what is happening in their area, as there may have been more recent sales that affect their opinion of price – or a rise in interest rates my negatively affect the number of people looking to purchase in that particular area. But whatever the reasons, these need to be included as the “good reason” as to why the agent is amending their opinion of price.

Yes – they most certainly do. If an agent holds both categories of licence, they must complete their Compulsory CPD topics in both real estate/stock & station and strata management functions. If there is overlap in the content of the CPD sessions between the real estate/stock & station and the strata management sessions, an agent naturally only need to complete the overlapping topics once. This is a condition on every agent’s licence and all CPD must be completed by NSW property agents by 22 March every year.

Yes – they most certainly do. CPD is a condition on every agent’s licence or certificate of registration in NSW. Every year, an agent must complete their required CPD by 22 March. This is not negotiable and is required to ensure that all licence/certificate remains up-to-date with legislative and regulation changes and can return to the industry at any time with currency and professionalism.

The short answer is “yes” they do. It is a requirement of property agents in NSW that whenever they list to sell or lease a property (residential, commercial, industry, retail, rural), or list a business for sale or enter into an agreement with an owners corporation as a strata manager – they must obtain proof of identity from the person/s signing the agreement. Clause 4.1 of the NSW Supervision Guidelines, governed pursuant to sections 31 and 32 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, notes this as a requirement.

Since March 2020 when legislative changes were introduced in the property industry in NSW, there has been a more streamlined approach to licensing. There are now three distinct licence categories – real estate, stock & station and strata management. Other functions such as business broking, buyers agents and on-site residential property managers (short-term rental accommodation managers) are all subsumed within the general real estate licence. With the market in its current state, now may well be the time to expand into other areas of practice – agents just need to make sure that they hold the correct category of licence to perform these additional functions.

It appears that agents are still offering rental properties in NSW in an ambiguous manner, by using statements such as ‘offers over’, ‘offers from’ or ‘by negotiation’. All of these terms were banned in legislation introduced on 17 December 2022, where agents are not permitted to solicit or invite an offer of rent that is higher than the advertised price. In February 2023, 306 agents have been issues with warning letters to cease this practice.

Since 2020, a property agent has the option to renew their licence for a 1, 3 or 5 year period. The most important aspect is that the renewal is done on time. If an agent does not renew their licence on the due date, that agent will be listed on the NSW Fair Trading Public Register as “expired”. In this scenario, an agent can renew in the following 3 month period and pay a late fee, or within 12 months of the licence lapsing with a new application. However, if the licence has lapsed for more than 12 months, the agent will not only need to make a new application, they will need to meet the current educational requirements for a licence, which will be different from when they first were granted their licence authority.

A relatively new service available to vendors in the market to sell their property are the “Vendor Advocates”. Whilst this can be a very useful service for a vendor in assisting them to decipher the property jargon, it may be just as significant for the vendor to understand how the vendor’s advocate will be paid for their services.