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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-25 Daily Xml
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REAL ESTATE LAWS

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:15): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Consumer Affairs a question about real estate laws.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The new real estate laws which started on 28 July 2008 were structured to improve safeguards for consumers who are buying or selling a property by making real estate dealings more transparent. In The Advertiser of 15 May 2010, it was reported that property buyers are frustrated that real estate agencies are refusing to review price guides.

In the Sunday Mail of 16 May 2010, it was reported that price guides for houses are still being advertised using underquoted figures, in some cases by up to 35 per cent, despite new state government laws aimed at stopping the practice. For example, in the Sunday Mail of 16 May, it revealed that a home in Semaphore was quoted at $850,000 and sold for over $1 million. Similarly, a home in Wayville was quoted at $460,000 and sold for $620,000.

The Sunday Mail highlighted that the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs has not fined or prosecuted any agent for underquoting since the real estate laws came into practice two years ago. On 30 June 2009, the Minister for Consumer Affairs stated in a press release that outlawed practices such as dummy bidding and underquoting of prices to entice buyers seemed to have ceased. My questions are:

1. Does the minister believe that the statement she made on 30 June 2009 in a press release is still true and correct?

2. In light of the media report presented by the Sunday Mail, what amendments will the minister propose to address the concerns within the current legislation?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:17): I thank the honourable member for her most important questions. Indeed, this government put in place new real estate laws, which commenced in July 2008, to improve protection for home buyers and sellers. The laws sought, generally, to improve transparency throughout the whole real estate process of engaging an agent, marketing a property and the sale of property by auction or through private contract or treaty.

In the main, agents and sales representatives do seem to have complied with the real estate regulatory controls, and I understand that the breaches that have been detected—and considerable monitoring has occurred relating to compliance—have been fairly minor in nature, such as, if I recall from the report, real estate officers not wearing their ID badges and certain information not necessarily being given out to every single person who is interested in purchasing a property.

In terms of dummy bidding, the reports I have received are that there has been no further detection of that practice occurring since the new legislation has been put in place. To the best of my knowledge, that is what the reports have confirmed to me. We have been very impressed with that. In fact, the industry has been very responsive in relation to these changes and incredibly responsible in the way that it has ensured that the information has been disseminated amongst its staff, and that changes to practices have generally occurred.

They are to be commended for their efforts and I believe that improvements through those legislative changes have definitely been a win-win. They have been a win for consumers who can now be assured in terms of improved transparency and a win for the real estate industry, as well, because it increases people's confidence to participate, particularly in practices like auctioneering, where the practice of dummy bidding was often quite off-putting to ordinary mums and dads.

Overall, I am very pleased. The results I have received from the agency show that the breaches that have occurred are only minor. However, if any member, or any member of the public, is aware of any breaches, I certainly would encourage them to contact the Office of Consumer and Business Affairs and immediately lodge a complaint. Officers there will of course follow that up. I think that just about sums it up.

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