Real estate agents in Western Australia have expressed strong reservations about the fallout from a Federal push to create a national licensing system for the profession.
And it seems the WA parliament agrees, with an Upper House Committee looking into the state legislation required to meet the Commonwealth’s request, recently rejecting the proposal.
President of the Real Estate Institute of WA, Alan Bourke, said on the face of it the proposal to have a national license for real estate personnel made good sense, but that the devil was in the detail.
“The plan from Canberra is broadly to ensure that when workers move interstate their licenses are uniform and recognised across state borders,” Mr Bourke said.
“While on the surface this makes perfect sense when it comes to real estate agency in WA the proposal has the effect of watering down our existing high standards and lowering the benchmark for training and for ongoing professional development.”
Mr Bourke said buying a house was the single biggest investment most Australians will make and that REIWA is adamant that the key to providing a low-risk professional service to home buyers is by mandating a high level of qualification and ongoing professional development.
“Whilst it is important to have a high level of initial training, it is equally important that agents are kept up to date with changes in the industry including government requirements and the regulatory environment agents operate within.
This requirement is not contained within the current Federal proposal,” Mr Bourke said.
The Board of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, which met in Perth at the end of June, has called for the Federal Government, States and Territories to agree to a national licensing system which requires agents to achieve:
• a diploma level for licensing;
• compulsory continuing professional development; and
• requires licensing for commercial agency work.
The national licensing scheme is due to start in July of 2012, however Mr Bourke said the industry would continue to lobby for changes so that the professional safeguards currently in place are not undermined.
REIWA - http://reiwa.com.au/Faq/Pages/News.aspx
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