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.
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