An important part of being successful in the sale or leasing of your property, is choosing the right agent. Property owners can source advice from the NSW Fair Trading website in relation to the process of checking the background of an agent. The website provides a checklist for property owners that includes the checking of the agent’s licence, obtaining a list of the applicable fees for the transaction, checking the agent’s knowledge of the local area and obtaining specific details about the marketing process for your property.

The latest interest rate rise will most likely have an impact on the property market. With the new laws relating to the ban on rental bidding, with the current property market, there is even more importance that an agent does not solicit or encourage prospective tenants to make higher offers for rent . Agents must offer properties at a fixed rent and not use price ranges. These laws came into effect on 17 December 2022.

NSW Fair Trading has identified the property industry as one of the priority areas of regulatory areas for the coming year. They will be focusing on improved integrity in service provision relating to trust accounting, misleading representations from agents, particularly on price; strata maintenance in relation to safety of common property; and conditions of rental properties and increasing the responsiveness of landlords to reasonable tenant requests for repairs and maintenance.

Many people are talking about the 2% deposit scheme, which allows certain people to be able to buy a property and apply for a mortgage through a participating lender with a small deposit of 2% of the property purchase price. The Shared Equity Scheme is for a limited time, limited criteria and is on a 2 year trial. There are only 3,000 places available per financial year in the scheme. The scheme will see government “buy in” on property with an eligible buyer, almost as though the buyer has a co-owner or a guarantor – where they will contribute a proportion (30% or 40%) of the purchase price for an equivalent interest in the property.

The Do Not Call Register gives Australians the opportunity to stop receiving calls from telemarketers (which includes real estate agents). Examples of such calls would be calls offering an appraisal of a property, informing buyers of property for sale, offering your services to obtain a listing, or a follow-up call to a person who recently visited an open home. Naturally, there are exceptions if the person gives their consent. So, check the Do Not Call Register, which is best accessed at www.donotcall.gov.au

Door knocking is a pretty standard way used by agents to obtain listings. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regard door knocking as “unsolicited consumer agreements”. A real estate agent must adhere to the strict rules in relation to days and times that they can door knock and must also provide specific information about themselves and their agency. If an agent is asked to leave, then they MUST leave immediately and not return to the property for at least 30 days. Most importantly, agents must remember that there is a 10 day cooling off period if a consumer signs an agreement at the time of the door knock, and also that the consumer can terminate their agreement either verbally or in writing, at any time during the cooling off period.

Yes, legislatively the answer is you MUST sight photo identification for all property owners. However, when there is a clear issue where a person does not have any photo ID and there are impediments to obtain such documents, then an agent should think outside of the square. Naturally, the agent must take every step possible to assure themselves that the person that is signing the agency agreement is the person who is the true owner of the property.

Yes, is the simple answer to this question. It is a requirement under the Property and Stock Agents Act in NSW that a Licensee-In-Charge has written policies and procedures which address the functions of their agency, and also meet the requirements of the legislation in relation to the supervision of their employees. It is also a legislative requirement that these policies and procedures are reviewed on an annual basis. Now that it is January, it is a great time to make the decision to complete a review of a small part of your agency’s documentation and complete a section every month – then your annual review doesn’t become onerous. Talk to ACOP if you need assistance with this.

There is an updated national qualification for the strata industry. In NSW, the industry regulator, NSW Fair Trading have set the requirements for Assistant Agents (entry level), Class 2 licence holders and the senior category of Class 1 licence holders. These new qualifications, the CPP41421 Certificate IV in Strata Community Management and the CPP51122 Diploma of Property (Agency Management – Strata), have great new Units of Competency that will provide new and experienced agents in the strata industry with strata-specific information.

A new scheme has been introduced as of 16 January 2023 to assist first home buyers in purchasing their first home, which provides a choice for buyers that may not have previously been able to access a first home buyers stamp duty concession or exemption. The scheme allows for a first home buyer to opt in when purchasing their first property for properties up to $1.5 million with the ability to choose to pay an annual property tax instead of the traditional transfer duty (previously known as stamp duty).