The issue that could have the greatest impact on the real estate profession over the next three years is changing government and local council regulations, according to research issued last week by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).
According to a survey of 1861 real estate professionals around the country, 59 percent cited changing regulation as their top concern, whereas two years ago changing regulation was 6th on the list with 51 percent citing it as having a great impact.
Bindi Norwell, chief executive at REINZ says: “Given the pace of legislative change the real estate profession has had to deal with over the last two years, including anti-money laundering, changes to the Residential Tenancies Act, a ban on letting fees, negative gearing, asbestos, methamphetamine and a ban on foreign buyers, it’s not surprising that regulation is top of mind right now for the industry.
“The real estate industry has had to deal with more legislative changes in the last two years than we’ve dealt with in the five years prior. This has involved a significant level of upskilling across the industry as well as the implementation of new technology systems and processes; all of which require an investment which comes at a cost.”
Second on the list of issues that could have the greatest impact on the real estate industry is global economic conditions with 53 percent of respondents citing this as a concern – up slightly from 52 percent in 2017. This was followed closely with New Zealand’s aging population (53 percent – down from 57 percent in 2017) and new legislation (50 percent up from 39 percent in 2017).
Other trends viewed as having the greatest impact on the real estate industry are people moving from larger cities to small towns (50 percent down from 52 percent), immigration (39 percent down significantly from 65 percent in 2017) and more apartments/terraced houses being built (36 percent down from 43 percent).
“When we last surveyed the profession back in 2017, the issue that the industry felt could have the greatest impact was interest rates with 69 percent of respondents citing that as their top trend. As interest rates have continued to fall over the last two years, it’s now 9th on the list,” says Norwell.
