Real estate agents will no longer be able to make their properties look like they have not been on the market as long as they really have on Homes.co.nz.
The website’s owner is moving to make renewed and edited listings still show their original listing date.
Trade Me, which owns the site, said it was in the process of bringing Homes.co.nz in alignment with its own policies, which kept listings at their original date unless they had been off the market for 45 days.
Property listing dates can still be brought forward on Realestate.co.nz by re-posting ads, but the site says it has “measures in place to catch and prevent this”.
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Jon Duffy, Consumer NZ chief executive, says sites that allow property listing dates to be manipulated could run foul of the Fair Trading Act.
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy welcomed the move by Trade Me to changes Homes.co.nz’s functionality, and said it reduced the chance of the website being in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
“The Fair Trading Act looks at the impression that would be created in a consumer’s mind,” he said.
“If a listing date is inaccurate and misrepresents how long the property has been on the market then that is a problem.”
Duffy said inaccuracies on listing dates seemed more of an issue with the functionality of the site rather than the intent of estate agents.
“It’s possibly not a malicious thing or an intentional thing.”
He wasn’t aware of consumer complaints about websites being used to manipulate listing dates, but said this issue could rear its head in future as the market downturn continued.
A Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman said the site had strict policies against relisting properties to renew the listing date and measures were in place to catch and prevent it happening.
The website was not able to provide details on what these measures were, but at least two recent Wellington listings only had their listing dates amended to the original after a customer complained.
“We’ve seen no notable uptick in this behaviour,” the spokeswoman said.
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Trade Me property sales director Gavin Lloyd says his team hopes to have Trade Me and Homes.co.nz systems aligned within the next couple of weeks.
Diane Cummings co-owns estate agency CK and Co in Lower Hutt, which recently had two ads’ listing dates updated after re-posting on Homes.co.nz.
Cummings said both had been taken off the market for at least a fortnight, one in order to have new photographs taken, and the other because the owners wanted a break from the market. The property was then put back up with a revised script and a price reduction.
She said there were legitimate reasons why an agent would renew an advert, including to have new images taken, reduce the price, or freshen the listing.
Renewing listings had been common during the last market downturn.
“There is nothing deceptive about it. In this day and age there is so much information out there it’s easy to see when a house came to market somewhere amongst the many websites out there that provide housing information.”
Duffy didn’t put much stock in this argument.
“It may be that some buyers are savvy and watching the market, but equally there may be buyers who are new to the market who may be misled,” he said.
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Diane Cummings says CK and Co recently did a price drop on a property that had been on the market for four months of $75,000, and had a busy open home as a result, reflecting it was about getting the price right.
Cummings said sellers today should focus on keeping up with the market, rather than following prices down.
“If you are priced too high you just help sell another house in the neighbourhood.”
Real Estate Authority chief executive Belinda Moffat said the regulator’s code of conduct required licensees not to mislead potential buyers.
“This extends to ensuring marketing information is accurate and does not mislead buyers. Misleading information could potentially include intentionally giving an incorrect date when asked how long a property has been on the market.”
The outcome of a finding of misleading conduct could range from no action if the issue was mitigated or remedied, to a fine or referral to the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal.
“We would advise all licensees to make every effort to ensure that the information about a property on any marketing and advertising they create is accurate.”
