Real estate regulation changes

To assist property owners, agents and purchasers when selling and buying property, the NSW Government seeks to further improve the regulation of the NSW property industry.

The proposed improvements to the Property, Stock and Business Agents Regulation 2014 include:

• making it easier and cheaper for prospective buyers to obtain pre-purchase property reports
• having the real estate agent include in the agency agreement for residential property the price at which the property is to be offered (this previous requirement would be reinstated, as has been requested by industry)
• removing unnecessary regulation for real estate agents who sell or manage property for a related corporate entity or a large commercial property owner.

What do the changes include?

Record of property reports for home buyers

Real estate agents would need to maintain a record of certain property reports carried out (including timber and pest inspections, and strata search reports) for residential properties for sale. This would enable home buyers easier, faster and cheaper access to reports already commissioned.

Real estate agents would need to record reports that they are aware of. Prospective buyers would be informed about available reports, if any, when requesting the sale contract. The records would include:

• contact details for the person who compiled each report
• who requested it (ie. the seller, agent or a prospective buyer)
• whether the report is available to be repurchased.

Including the offer price in agency agreements

In response to industry consultation, an agency agreement for the sale of residential property would again be required to contain the price at which the property is to be offered.

Deregulation of commercial property agency work

Commercial property agents would no longer be regulated when selling or managing property for a related corporate entity or a large commercial property owner. The NSW Government committed to this in agreeing to adopt recommendation 17, together with the other recommendations in the IPART Report - Reforming licensing in NSW.

What is happening?

In May 2016, NSW Fair Trading released a draft Regulation and sought comments. Submissions closed on 15 June and are currently being reviewed, which may result in further changes to the Regulation. If required, we may conduct further targeted consultation on any key issues identified. If you submitted comments, you will be notified when the Regulation is finalised.

The final Regulation will be published on the NSW legislation website.