Consumer New Zealand’s first real estate agency survey ranks the best and worst real estate companies in the country.
The consumer organisation surveyed 1,982 Consumer NZ members and supporters who in the past three years have bought or sold a house.
Those surveyed were asked to rate the agency that had the house listing across a series of ratings which included:
- Overall satisfaction
- Professionalism
- Conduct – ethical, honest and open
- Timeliness of responses
- Knowledge of the property
- Market knowledge
- Relevant legal knowledge
- Explanation of the process
- Transparency of fees and charges
- Clarity and accuracy of marketing
- Information provided
- Quality of advice
- Ease of settlement process
- Managing expectations
Consumer used a satisfaction ranking of up to 100% and found NZ’s real estate industry overall had a satisfaction rating of 63%.
The consumer watchdog noted that because real estate agencies work for the vendor, buyers rated them lower compared to sellers. Satisfaction rates in the industry were 72% among sellers and 55% among buyers.
AndCo Realty Group emerged as the top real estate company among the 14 surveyed, achieving an overall satisfaction rate of 77%.
Consumer NZ said this percentage represented survey respondents rating AndCo 8, 9, or 10 on a scale of 0 to 10. AndCo got 57 responses in the survey.
Based on this rating, Consumer awarded AndCo Realty Group its “inaugural Real Estate People’s Choice Award”.
“AndCo was rated much higher than the average real estate agency for providing timely responses, its market and legal knowledge, and its conduct being ethical, honest and open,” the consumer watchdog said.
Other real estate agencies to score highly on overall satisfaction were EVES which scored 72% across 36 responses and Tremains which scored 70% over 30 responses.
EVES scored higher than AndCo when it came to rankings on property knowledge and relevant legal knowledge, and Tremains scored higher than both Andco and EVES when it came to ranking quality of advice.
On the other end of the scale, Professionals scored the worst overall satisfaction ranking at 50%.
“Despite the name, Professionals got the lowest score for professionalism,” Consumer said.
“It also rated lowest for most of our other attributes. Its scores for transparency of fees and charges, information provided and quality of advice were much lower than the average.”
Professionals got 62 survey responses.
Other real estate agencies scoring below the overall survey average satisfaction rate of 63% included Sotheby’s with 61% (36 responses), LJ Hooker with 59% (59 responses), and Ray White with 57% (374 responses).
“We had the most responses from people who had used Ray White, but what they told us saw the company take second to last spot in our satisfaction table,” Consumer said.
LJ Hooker outperformed most real estate agencies in conduct and quality of advice but received the lowest score for timeliness of responses.
According to Consumer NZ, all of Sotheby’s satisfaction scores were below the industry averages.
In the middle rankings, Harcourts and Mike Pero both scored 63% in overall satisfaction. But Harcourts had 352 responses compared to Mike Pero’s 46.
Barfoot & Thompson scored slightly higher at 65% based on 167 survey responses, while Bayley’s scored 67% with 178 responses.
Consumer said Barfoot & Thompson “didn’t stand out for good or bad reasons” and Bayley’s did well across the survey.
Appraisals
Consumer NZ’s Market Research and Insights Manager Scott Moore said a number of sellers had found the offers they received for their house and the eventual sale price fell below the appraisal provided by their agency.
For 30% of sellers, the price ended up lower than the appraisal compared to above appraisal for 20% of sellers.
For 44% of sellers surveyed, the sale price fell within the appraised range.
“First time sellers particularly noted receiving offers lower than they had expected,” Scott said.
“First-timers often enter the market with high expectations but tend to have lower confidence and leave less satisfied. They’re more likely to report issues during the process and are less satisfied with the professionalism, knowledge and communication from their agents.”
More details of Consumer NZ’s real estate rankings can be read here.
The comment stream on this story is now closed.
•You can have articles like this delivered directly to your inbox via our free Property Newsletter. We send it out 3-5 times a week with all of our property-related news, including auction results, interest rate movements and market commentary and analysis. To start receiving them, register here (it's free) and when approved you can select any of our free email newsletters.
40 Comments
“Professionals” 😂
This is hilarious. Maybe it’s a regional thing but in Central Auckland Ray White definitely sell their share of upper market homes compared with B&T. If Ray White are that bad, why do so many choose to use them?
They’re good at selling the vendor a feeling of RW being supreme. Good sales people they are, of their own brand. I sold through the same RW, a near disaster. Had to escalate it personally to the highest level at their office to get it resolved.
Aren’t RW a franchise ? So will have mixed results. As a vendor we dealt with RW Orakei and were highly impressed with their knowledge, strategic thinking and the whole selling process that I had been dreading.
Real estate agency is hardly a profession.
It’s an industry at best.
TTP
The eventual selling price being skewed only a little below appraisal looks not a bad result given the market has turned down. But it looks like it ignores all the unsold properties, which are likely to have been appraised too high.
In my experience it is the agent that matters more than the agency they are connected to.
Often the sales price does not reflect on a perception of professionalism and trust of the real estate agency practices and training for RE agents. An agency sets the policies and conduct of agents in many cases. There are many agents who are outright useless and dangerous in their conduct. Very few are trustworthy and sadly this is regardless of how high the price they reached. If anything most clients regardless of whether they sold well or brought will have issues with RE agents that will prevent them from even considering 4 out of 5 star ratings. A successful sale may just earn an RE agent an ok grade as the conduct and issues with their practice are still in the forefront of people's minds leading many (those who are able) to to ditch them altogether.
“First time sellers particularly noted receiving offers lower than they had expected,” Scott said"
The market is certainly re-educating those who carry unrealistic expectations from yesteryear. The great reset continues.
As the market cools and the music stops people are finding that there are spare chairs. With articles about the number of dwellings in Auckland and problems with finding flatmates - the noise that flooded the bandwidth has dropped so the real situation has revealed itself. Various industries got caught up in the noise and couldn't see what was really happening. While in part it is about optics, it is also about players flooding the market with noise in the hope of confusing the population into believing a narrative.
If I understand the intro to this article, those surveyed had bought or sold property in the past 3 years. Therefore the sale/purchase was successful. Surely this survey should cover any activity regardless of the outcome. One suspects that unsuccessful sales would result in more criticism of the agency. But maybe I read your intro incorrectly. If this survey did indeed cover all activity the statistics should seperate success from failure.
real estate agencies work for the vendor
🤣
In some countries (eg Singapore, Malaysia) the agent commission is split between the seller and buyer. That may inhibit extravagant price setting.
That actually sounds bloody sensible.
I would fully expect the report on positivlty with regards to agents, to plummet - from the vendors perspective.
This is due to the current property ponzi crash, that is only 30 to 40% into the multiyear downturn.
Vendors now and in coming years will be apoplectic and spitting tacs at the majority of agents "lofty valuations" (to get the listing) that are then subsequently and completely pancake flattened. The overweight and unsustainable debt burdened truck, barreling through an economically beleaguered NZ, requires a massive unloading in a big way, as the leaf springs are already flattened and knackered.
Come July 1 2024, expect agents to have still more headaches to work through........
As a veritable great flood of house supply, meets a rapidly tightening monetary and fiscal environment, the ability and desire to pay moonbeams for NZ dirt and shacks collapses.
The smart ones, will be those who saw the wobbly truck, barreling down and SOLD OUT OF EXCESS HOUSING / LANDBANKS, BEFORE JUNE/JULY 2024.
The crash in confidence and ability to pay has merely just begun.
Sold out before now? Some of us sold excess property in 2021 and 2022.
Very smart move by 2022.
Next smartest move, is complete liquidation before July 1 2024.
When I saw categories #3 and #9, I was left wondering where the likes of Property Brokers fit into this mix and whether or not valuable lessons have been learnt.....
Great questions.
I believe they would have excluded, previous criminal DEFENDANTS (and Convicted) from the survey?
Has the PB stooges learned lessons?
Do leopards change spots?
Anyway, as we all know, snakes do eventually need slough their skins.......
The agent engaged is going to be relatively insignificant if what's probable across The Tasman arrives here as well. If that transpires, we'll follow (or as we should do, lead) otherwise we'll find the NZ$ somewhere at the bottom of Auckland harbour...
"The Reserve Bank of Australia will need to raise interest rates multiple times to squash persistent inflation"
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/multiple-interest-rate-rises-needed-…
And as an aside, it won't just be the Aussies that give us a glimpse of the future.
"Rupert Murdoch has slashed the price of his penthouse apartment in New York by more than half after struggling to find a buyer..."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/27/murdoch-slashes-new-yor…
"The agent engaged is going to be relatively insignificant if what's probable across The Tasman arrives here as well"
Whilst it is surprising how strong the housing market hs been and how much it has risen by, in the last 12 months, I do not expect this to be reflected here in NZ.
“Despite the name, Professionals got the lowest score for professionalism,” Consumer said.
"Savage" as my daughter would say.
Whatever they name themselves, real estate is not a real profession. As much as they want to be compared to real professions like law, engineering, and accounting; it’s just sales.
“it’s just sales.”
Yeah. Like a family friend who was a mechanic in the 80s and sold cars (2nd hand) from a Business in Panmure with 2 partners. Retired at 60 with more money than a plastic surgeon or partner in a law firm. No shame in sales. How successful have you been buddy? Financially secure, bunch of medals for sporting success? Retired early?
How much money one makes has nothing to do with whether or not one is a professional.
What differentiates a profession from other forms of employment is a period of extended training, and typically, formal qualifications.
Sales isn't that, no matter how triggered it makes you.
On the mark but beyond the comprehension of the individual posting. “Triggered” very apt 😊
It depends on the individual agent you get at a company, choose wisely.
You beat me to it ITG.
Good on Interest for sharing this survey. Whilst it's only possible to survey RE companies and not individuals, I would advise from my many years of selling and buying RE, that the individual agent matters a lot more than the RE company. If you're looking for an agent, do a bit of homework first. Try to get a local agent to where you want to sell and an agent who has lots of expereince in the type of RE you want to sell (house, townhouse, price bracket etc...) I would be happy recommending some in Auckland and Chch, but I'm not sure I'm allowed to do this on a public forum.
I've had my doubts about Real Estate "professionals" ever since being in a cafe and a salesperson, eavesdropping on my lunch conversation from two tables away, attempted to offer me a card.
The only reason I didn't tell them what I thought of their behaviour was that I know the cafe's proprietor and didn't want their business to suffer if I got shouty.
So you don't believe in promoting one's business? Does the Café you work in not do any advertising of any sort? Have you tried to start being self-employed? It's extremely hard to do business when no one knows about you!
It's always polite in a place like a cafe to pretend that you don't hear others' nearby conversations but honestly that's all it is.
"It's always polite to pretend..."
I get your point, but some people think it's more polite to be upftont and not pretend.
Interesting to see Temains rates so highly, particularly considering one of the owners lost his licence for the "quality advice" he was giving 🤣🤣
- Joe Biden and Donald Trump have faced off in the first debate of the 2024 presidential election season.
- Both candidates launched deeply personal attacks on one another, with Biden condemning the “convicted felon” standing opposite him, and Trump repeatedly castigating Biden’s son after his conviction on firearms charges.
- Democrats weighed in after the debate, saying Biden had had a lacklustre performance. It sparked a fresh round of calls for Biden to step aside.
- The Associated Press had a look at the false and misleading claims by the two candidates.
Dems in trouble, Bush Jnr is younger then these guys, younger then trump by a year and Biden by 4
Former Missouri senator Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC that Biden had one job, and he didn’t do it: He needed to “reassure America that he was up to the job at his age, and he failed”. Democrats are doing more than hand-wringing in private and wondering why the Biden surrogates, who were performing well to counter the Biden debate performance, aren’t the ones at the top of the ticket, she said.
I just can’t believe that neither party can come up with better younger candidates.
In a country of over 300 million people
Like your local casino, the game is rigged from the very start.
Beyond the house rodent I am afraid
Intellectual debate will never get votes in the USA. They want brashness, arrogance, and emotive assertiveness given we’re now in the goldfish era (era of short attention spans and emotional impulsiveness).
So even worse, Biden cannot remember a soundbite....
he is so baked.
even the left Atlantic calls it
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/06/presidential-debat…
As Biden struggled to grasp his own point, his time ran out. “Thank you, Mr. President,” the moderator, Jake Tapper, said. It felt like a mercy.
Whoever the agent was in this case
https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350322602/wolfbrook-accused-deceptio…
they must bear some responsibility. Was a commission paid?
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.