by Joanne Duggan
Last month we shared with you our summary of your call to action from our Housing Summit. I'm sure you agreed, there were No surprises there. We also promised to share the answers the most popular Sli.do questions not addressed on the day. This month we put the question to Bindi Norwall, Chief Executive at REINZ around Real Estate agents understanding of environmental benefits when it comes to housing.
Our Housing Summit in mid-June was attended by a broad range of key industry figures, focusing on numerous topics like the economics of better homes, climate change and housing, and improving the Building Code. Bindi Norwell was on one of the most popular panels of the day. Health, wellbeing and happiness. The real life positive benefits of better homes. Alongside Bindi was Moderator: Andrea Davison - Technical Manager Special Projects, New Zealand Green Building Council.Dr Rhys Jones (Ngāti Kahungunu) - Senior lecturer in Māori Health at the University of Auckland. Te Aorangi Corbett - Proud mum, tenant and Aucklander and Zane Raphael - Proud Family Man and Project Manager.
This question was put to the panel via Sli.do on the day and answered by Bindi Norwell post the event.
“Do real estate agents have training and understand environmental choice and benefits, say as opposed the focus on larger houses, granite bench tops etc?”
Each year licenced real estate agents must undertake 10 hours of verifiable training that is set by their governing body, the Real Estate Authority, and 10 hours of non-verifiable training that must be real estate industry related.
Currently there is no environmental module as part of the REA’s training, but this might be something they would consider in the future should an approach be made.
From a marketing perspective, agents tend to focus on areas of the house that are most likely to attract potential purchasers to a property. As houses that are more environmentally friendly are becoming more popular we therefore believe that environmental benefits of a property are likely to receive greater focus in marketing materials in the future.
Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ
To check out this and lots of other presentations from the summit, see here
We’re always looking for feedback or ways to improve what we do, so if you’d like to share your perspective or resources, get in touch at joanne.duggan@nzgbc.org.nz