Changes to the Real Estate Agents Act in 2008 meant only licensed real estate agents could do real estate work, NZIF president James Treadwell said.
Registered members of NZIF might have been advising one party in a forest transaction but were not allowed by the law to talk to parties on the other side of the deal.
“Valuing forests can be quite technical and real estate people didn’t know a lot about that detail,” Treadwell said.
“There were issues that we could have fixed in a short time if we’d been able to talk with the other side but we weren’t allowed to.”
The law change had been designed to protect consumers at the time of the global financial crisis but its narrow application had ended up being way to draconian.
NZIF had been trying for the last five years to get another change to open the field up for its registered members and now Associate Justice Minster Mark Mitchell had agreed to that, effective from November 1.
That would allow NZIF time to update its rules, including refining its code of conduct for members, Treadwell said.
“Our registered members have significant responsibilities when they join NZIF and we are positive they will act in good faith.
“They will maintain the highest industry standards and act professionally in any future real estate dealings.”
Only registered members could act in sales but Treadwell did not expect all the 90 or so in that group to get involved.
They could be involved only in transactions involving forests and would be working on a fee-for-service basis, not on commission. Lawyers would still be required to prepare sale and purchase agreements.
There were hundreds of forest block transactions every year and Treadwell said farm foresters and other smaller private owners without the technical knowledge held by corporate owners would be likely to benefit most from the new NZIF involvement.
Overseas entities were also expected to be looking for advice.
