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More agents than homes to sell

Liz McDonald liz.mcdonald@stuff.co.nz

Real estate agents have no excuse not to lavish time on their clients – New Zealand now has more agents than homes for sale.

A total of 15,503 agents and 909 companies have active real estate licences, about 1200 more than a year ago. A record number of people applied to join the industry in the past year, according to the Real Estate Agents Authority.

At the same time a growing shortage of listings has been compounded by the Covid lockdown.

At the start of this month there were 12,250 homes on the market, a third fewer than last year, according to the Real Estate Institute (REINZ).

Stephen Lee, a real estate agent with The Professionals, said agents were competing for listings and some were cutting commissions.

‘‘There are probably too many real estate agents in the market now. People will fall out because they can’t survive in this market.’’

Lee said while there were usually 20 to 30 listings in his area of Wellington’s Eastbourne and Hutt neighbourhoods, there were now just eight listings among nine agents.

‘‘I think the younger agents will struggle because they don’t have the reputation yet. Some of the established agents are getting more listings.’’

Lee said some agents were now agreeing to commissions below two per cent.

According to Lee, most agents earned less than $100,000 a year and only a few earned big money. He described the job as hard work, with non-regular hours and a lot of rules to follow.

The boost in licence numbers has been attributed to the heated property market and fast-rising prices.

Valuation agency Quotable Value says New Zealand’s average home value has risen 26 per cent in past year. About 100,000 residential properties worth a total of just over $90 billion changed hands in the year to June, up from $53b worth in the year to the end of 2019.

The latest income figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment show agents earned an average of $84,500 in 2019.

Craig Prier of Ray White, who has been selling real estate in Christchurch for 38 years, said that like any business, those who worked hardest did best.

‘‘You’ve got to be proactive. Business doesn’t come to you – you’ve got to be out there chasing people,’’ he said.

‘‘Maybe some agents get a bit caught out, coming in thinking it’s going to be easy. It’s never easy, you’ve got to get out there and sell. People are trusting us with their biggest asset.’’

Prier said an increase in recent requests for appraisals suggested listings would pick up over spring and summer.

REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said while the lower level of stock was not a surprise because of lockdown, the drop was more than expected.

‘‘This is the lowest level of inventory we’ve ever seen in New Zealand,’’ she said in the latest REINZ report.

Listings website realestate.co.nz recorded the lowest number of properties on the market during August since it launched 14 years ago.

The website’s spokesperson, Vanessa Williams, said the trend had been going on for several months. She said it might be caused partly by a self-fulfilling prophecy.

‘‘Plenty of factors are at play with our stock shortage, but with several reports of sellers unable to find a new home to live in, it’s no wonder that some have been hesitant to list their houses.

‘‘This contributes to lower stock – it becomes a bit of a cycle.’’

Real estate commissions vary from 2.5 per cent to 3.95 per cent of the first $400,000 of a sale price, another 2 to 2.5 per cent of the price above that, with marketing and auction costs sometimes extra.

Average prices in the main cities as of August were $1.36m in Auckland, $1.03m in Wellington, $676,000 in Christchurch, and $685,000 in Dunedin, according to Quotable Value.

Of New Zealand’s real estate agents, Auckland has the most with 6969, followed by Canterbury and West Coast with 1831.

The biggest drops in listings since last year according to realestate.co. nz were in the Coromandel (64 per cent), West Coast (52 per cent), Nelson (50 per cent), and Canterbury (49 per cent).

This is the lowest level of inventory we’ve ever seen in New Zealand’’

Jen Baird

Real Estate Institute chief executive

Earthquakes, a terror attack and an intense police negotiation with an offender who shot a colleague in the face – Kristian Danholt saw it all.

But now Danholt is just one of many police officers quitting the beat to take to the street.

The experienced policeman fancied a change, quitting the force after 14 years to become a Christchurch real estate agent with Tall Poppy.

And he’s not alone. A spokesperson for the company says around seven per cent of their agents have come from a policing background, and that there is a ‘‘growing interest’’ around New Zealand from police officers looking to switch careers.

Danholt said he had thought about switching to real estate for three years after seeing a number of police officers successfully transitioning and saw the change as a ‘‘natural pathway’’, with both careers requiring good people skills.

As a child Danholt always wanted to join the police, to provide a barrier between criminal behaviour and normal society.

During his time he witnessed a number of traumatic events.

During the Christchurch earthquakes of February 2011 Danholt was on the front line, and initially went to the CTV site.

But it was the sight of a Red Bus crushed on Colombo St when the masonry facade fell on top of it, killing eight people, that stayed with him.

‘‘It looked like it had basically been cut in half,’’ he said.

Danholt was also rostered on during the terror attacks at Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) and the Linwood Islamic Centre that killed 51 people and injured 40.

He described feeling ‘‘uncomfortable’’ when he responded, saying the uncertainty of what they were dealing with was challenging.

Also a negotiator when colleague Senior Sergeant Bruce Lamb was shot in the face in Phillipstown by Christopher Smith in 2010, Danholt has seen all sides of policing.

It has given him the ability to relate to people from all walks of life and made the transition to real estate successful, he said.

In Palmerston North, Willie Roy has also made the switch to real estate after 31 years in uniform.

The former senior sergeant loves his new career, saying he now has certainty that he’s coming home every night.

Roy said he has some memories he wished he didn’t from his time in the police, but said the requirement to be adaptable had transferred well to being a real estate agent.

On starting with Tall Poppy, Willie wondered how he could transition from kicking in doors, locking up offenders and dealing with victims to selling houses, but he was surprised by how much he enjoyed it.

‘‘I describe real estate as being equivalent to a high-speed police pursuit except there are no red and blue flashing lights or sirens.’’

Once a police detective, Jim Taare moved into real estate from a background in serious criminal investigations, including some of New Zealand’s highest-profile murder cases, negotiating with gangs and prisoners as well serving as a 10-year stint in professional standards.

Taare says dealing with tricky people or situations applies in both careers, and his policing skills stood him in ‘‘very good stead’’.

Both police and being a real estate agent made New Zealand’s top 10 most popular jobs list last year, with many new agents entering the market on the back of the property boom and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both careers require good people skills.

Kristian Danholt Former police officer

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281487869496900

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