Addressing the elephant in the room — mental health

The real estate industry can be stressful by nature — the measure of success is clearly defined, and the market can turn at any time. It's a busy job with little 'down' time. Add a pandemic to the mix, and it's fair to assume real estate and property management professionals may feel a little, or a lot, overwhelmed from time to time.

Discussions with our members, including business owners, agents and property managers, have identified stress issues and a lack of mental health resilience. The busy nature of these roles means it could very well be down to many of you feeling you don't have the time, resources, or energy to prioritise your own or your teams' mental wellbeing.

We must make time for each other and be aware of the signs of someone struggling — whether that's colleagues, family and/or friends. Managers need to tune into their team's wellbeing — noticing signs and being proactive if a staff member seems overly tired, quiet, withdrawn, or anxious.

Real estate and property management professionals who feel pressure to be constantly available may neglect important components of their life such as eating, sleeping, exercising or simply taking time out.

Let's talk about mental health

REINZ took part in a mental health workshop GoodYarn — designed to deliver practical mental health and wellbeing resources specifically for the workplace. The first step in addressing mental health is talking about it — that's precisely why we trialled the workshop ourselves. Now we want to bring it and the benefits to the profession.

REINZ is excited to roll out this face-toface programme to our wider community, ensuring you can recognise your mental health or that of others around you.

GoodYarn is an evidence-based, peer-delivered mental health literacy programme. It has three key aims and evaluation indicators:

▪ Increase awareness of signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses

▪ Build confidence in starting a conversation where you are concerned

▪ Improve knowledge of where and how to get help.

The GoodYarn programme is our latest non-verifiable learning tool in our toolbox, available to brands and designed for faceto-face peer groups.

Join us and the mental health movement to normalise talking about mental health and checking in on one another. You never know who might need it.

Get in touch with our education team at education@reinz.co.nz if you think this would be beneficial for your team (spoiler alert: it will be!).

Chris Campbell, Head of Education, REINZ