Last Friday I attended a briefing by the National Occupational Licensing Authority (NOLA) on National Licencing prior to the release of the Decision RIS which is expected on the week beginning the 15th July 2013.
While we have been pushing for the real estate profession to be moved to the second tranche of national licensing but according to NOLA we will still be included in the first wave.
In regards to some of the issues that we have raised in the past, it is suggested that the Decision RIS will include:
- No Age requirements
- Entry level of Certificate IV for real estate agents
- No separate licence for rural sales
- Most likely a separate licence for business agents
- Changes to personal probity requirements
- No compulsory CPD and NOLA will dictate training on an as needed basis
- A cut-off level for commercial transactions at which above there will be no licence required.
The States and Territories will all be conducting consultation with industry and stakeholders (in a variety of different forms) from mid-July until the end of August. We understand that the NSW Fair Trading has indicated they will do this via an on-line survey. We feel this approach leaves a lot to be desired but this also depends on how it is structured. This will probably be one of the last opportunities we have to get our message across and while the Decision RIS will not be amended by the consultation process the actual policy may be.
It is currently proposed that national licensing for the real estate industry will commence on 1 December 2014.
Once we have access to the Decision RIS I will provide a further update.