Diverse communities

Diversity, aptly, comes in many forms. With more than 200 different ethnicities in our communities, New Zealand is incredibly — and increasingly — culturally diverse. Around a quarter of all people who call New Zealand home were born overseas1. Disability Pride Aotearoa estimates that 14% of New Zealanders have a physical impairment that limits their everyday activities, and with the population trending older, that proportion may increase. Our rainbow communities are also growing, with around one in 20 adult New Zealanders identifying as LGBT+2 .

For REA, as a regulator, we want to extend our consumer protection to where diversity may increase vulnerability. For licensees, removing barriers to participation by diverse communities in real estate transactions can reduce risks of harm, raise trust and confidence — and generate opportunities in the market.

Supporting consumers

Well-informed buyers and sellers are empowered to make better decisions. This principle underpins REA’s approach to consumer protection. In any market, information is critical, but even objective, factual information may not be of equal value to everyone. The width of a hallway may be low-value information — unless you’re a wheelchair user. The presence of ashes at an open home may seem irrelevant — unless it presents a cultural barrier to you. And a comprehensive guide to the real estate transaction process won’t help you much if it’s in a language you can’t understand. Our consumer research3 suggests that people from Pacific Island and Asian backgrounds are less likely to feel empowered and able to participate effectively in a real estate transaction. Migrant consumers are more likely to experience an issue when buying or selling. Those who have English as a second or third language may be particularly vulnerable.

Information must be both accessible and relevant to its intended audience to become useful knowledge. At REA, we believe that to empower confident real estate consumers across New Zealand’s diverse communities there are knowledge gaps to be closed — and we want to work with the industry to close them.

Providing accessible resources

REA has taken steps to broaden the accessibility of a key consumer resource: the approved guides to the residential agency agreement and residential sale and purchase agreement, as well as our real estate buying journey guide. As licensees will know, REA requires you to provide a copy of the relevant approved agreement guide to a client or consumer before they sign either of those two foundational contracts. Effective from 14 October 2022, there are new approved English versions of these guides and these have been translated into six languages: Samoan, Tongan, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Hindi and Te Reo Māori.

These are languages the industry has told us you commonly encounter (and use) while doing business. The Te Reo Māori translation is symbolic and practical, signalling REA’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty) and the importance of engagement with Māori as tangata whenua.

Supporting the sector

Alongside our internal capability development, REA is committed to supporting the sector to understand and address the distinctive needs of consumers from all diverse communities. From 2023, we are initiating a mandatory Diversity and Inclusion series within the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme. The first module is an introduction to Te Tiriti O Waitangi in the context of real estate. The purpose of the module is to enable a core understanding, particularly given the unique historical context of land ownership in New Zealand. It also provides a foundation for a broader diversity and inclusion series to be delivered in subsequent years.

We appreciate that licensees will have differing levels of understanding of Te Tiriti. While some will be very familiar, in our recent licensee survey, the average self-rating in terms of your knowledge of Te Tiriti, tikanga and its connection with real estate was just 44%. REA wants to support the sector to lift its overall cultural competency, empowering licensees to engage with our diverse communities confidently, building relationships, cultivating trust and preventing harm.

Understanding prevents harm

Licensees often see REA as a disciplinarian first, responding to conduct harms, but as a consumer protection agency our work to prevent harm is equally important.

We took a major strategic step in this direction in 2018 with the launch of our consumer information website Settled.govt.nz, which is a powerful tool for preventing harm through empowering residential consumers with information. The next step requires a recognition that knowledge and understanding are most empowering when it addresses vulnerability, where the risks of harm are greatest.

In terms of New Zealand’s diverse communities, we aim to close our own knowledge gaps, those of our consumers, and our licensees. We are at the early stages of this journey, and we hope that REINZ members will walk with us and embrace the opportunities this greater knowledge and understanding will unlock.

A wheelchair-using consumer recently addressed REA about her experiences buying a home. She identified gaps in the information provided in marketing about a home’s accessibility, resulting in wasted visits to open homes. She also spoke about being overlooked by salespeople in favour of her non-disabled partner. We are aware of similar negative experiences from consumers in the rainbow community and from a range of cultural backgrounds. What can you do to break the bias and remove information and attitude obstacles for consumers in the real estate sector?

Nadine Thomas, Head of Engagement, Insights and Education, REA