LEGAL
Business unusual: COVID-19 and real estate advocacy
Melisa Beight, General Counsel, REINZ
Amesha Rama, In-house Counsel, REINZ
As your industry body, our imperative is to support you to navigate the ever-changing COVID-19 landscape. The profession has shown resilience and the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to restrictions, and we’re glad to be on that journey with you.
REINZ plays a proactive role in providing guidance around COVID-19. Since New Zealand returned to varying levels of lockdown in August, we’ve been working closely with government bodies — including the Real Estate Authority (REA), the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment (MBIE), the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
was updated seven times in less than a month. Alert Level 3 ’stages’ have been added, and a new COVID-19 Protection Framework announced, providing for a ‘traffic light’ system, currently in draft. Many a late night has been spent poring over the fine print since the lockdown was announced on 17 August and, with our Chief Executive, in discussions with the regulators late into the night.
REINZ is working closely with the REA to ensure members have a single source of clear guidance — the REA website. Our relationship is collaborative. The REA is responsive to our feedback on behalf of members, including amending its guidance where it may be unclear or ambiguous to real estate professionals.
The REINZ team has needed to be across all changes and be highly responsive to meet members’ needs for accurate, up-to-date information. REINZ has advocated for more property viewings — we even had to battle to retain the two visits per property per day — to increase the number of attendees from the same household and to have a greater ability to move house between alert levels. We have also worked with the regulators to seek clarification of Health Orders when Government departments interpreted the same Health Order differently, to give real estate professionals clarity and ensure business continuity.
We also have a strong relationship with MBIE/Tenancy Services. While we have created REINZ guidelines for residential property managers, this is supported by consultation with MBIE. REINZ's Head of Property Management, Jo Rae, has been instrumental in driving this.
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The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand
A rapidly evolving landscape
Advocating for real estate continuity
Through changing alert levels, Health Orders — and amendments — have come thick and fast. At the time of writing, we are currently on Health Order No. 12 — which
Frequent changes and much uncertainty have added to what has been a challenging time for everyone — personally and professionally. For our part, REINZ will