The Real Estate Authority is handling a volume of complaints against real estate salespeople. Its 2025 annual report highlighted a 35% rise in formal complaints during the year ending June 30.
9% of licensees subject to complaints were found to have engaged in misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct.
The authority reported that complaints involved customer service, skill and care, disclosure, and misleading advertising. Poor communication was also a concern.
However, the authority stated that many complaints did not involve issues warranting strict regulatory action.
Real Estate Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat said the results showed that the majority of real estate licensees were upholding high standards of professional conduct.
She noted that the rise in consumer dissatisfaction should be a priority for the industry and mentioned that some cases involved complex and serious issues.
“Licensees are expected to maintain high standards and to have the skills to navigate challenging market conditions. Fairness, transparency, skill and care are critical expectations of the conduct regulatory system we oversee.”
She stated that the rise in complaints underscored the complexity of the real estate transaction process. Moffat also emphasised that providing quality information was essential to support sound decision-making.
Currently, there are 15,692 people with active real estate licences in New Zealand. This includes 12,300 salespeople, 1930 individual agents, and 605 branch managers. However, this figure is nearly triple the number of residential property sales made each month.
“We were particularly pleased to see the 18% increase in branch managers this year given the important role they play as supervisors of salespeople,” Moffat said.