He also believes it could hurt the industry’s drive towards professionalism if not properly addressed. 

​Trever Molenaar is chairman of the Real Estate Institute Illawarra. 

“To be an agent you only need to do a couple of days’ course, whereas when I started it was a four-year course,” he said. “To deal with someone’s biggest asset, they’re not really qualified to do it.

“From the Real Estate Institute’s point of view, the level of criteria to be an agent now has dropped so far down the rank that you can effectively do an online course and be an agent, and to run an office too. 

“You’re dealing with people’s trust accounts and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of deposits.

“Twenty years ago when I did it, you had to do a full-time or part-time course for four years.

“You also had to be an agent working under someone else’s license for a year or two before you could actually run your own.”

The Real Estate Institute of Australia is spearheading the development of a national standards of practice, which it hopes will tie in with state and territory-based lobbying efforts to increase the educational qualifications required to work in real estate.

Last year, state government reforms proposed tougher training standards for real estate agents as well as giving Fair Trading more power to police rogue agents.

The reforms package is expected to go through parliament within the next few months.

Proposed reforms include increasing the certificate of registration educational requirements, introducing legislated Compulsory Professional Development for agents and licensees, and regulating a pathway to a higher qualification for anyone who enters the sector.

There is also a push from the Real Estate Institute of NSW for the real estate industry to be a professional industry.

They have estimated that professional status could take two to three years.

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