Coronavirus: Real Estate Institute issues new directives for open homes, auctions

The Real Estate Institute has advised special new precautions for agents, managers and the public in house auctions, open-homes and rental inspections and viewings but one economist wonders if it has gone far enough.

REINZ said events for under 500 people were allowed, indicating auctions could continue but only with additional precautions.

But economist Shamubeel Eaqub questioned auctions: "I suspect they will need to change how they do those. Social distancing is very effective but doesn't work if you are cramming people in."

REINZ said it had cancelled all its own planned events for more than a month, including face-to-face training, property management workshops and health and wellbeing workshops from yesterday until the end of April.

REINZ is now encouraging the use of hand sanitiser for property viewings and auctions.

Agents should display Covid-19 information and hygiene notices at any property the public is visiting as well as at all auctions, including a statement at the door that people feeling unwell can't enter.

Anyone just back from overseas, excluding the Pacific, or in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case in the last 14 days should be self-isolating and may not enter the property, the guidelines say.

If someone felt unwell within 14 days of an open home or auction, they should contact the agent.

For private viewings of open homes, the information should be emailed to attendees in advance.

Auction attendees should fill out a register, regardless of whether they intend to bid or not, so they can be contacted at a later date if needed. The same goes for open home attendees, REINZ says.

If someone at an open home, rental viewing or auction tested positive for Covid-19, other people who went might need to be contacted.

Agents should consider requiring pre-registration of auction attendees, REINZ says.

"This way, attendees can be emailed relevant information."

Agents should also email tenants information before going to a routine property inspection under the new guidelines.

Tenants feeling unwell should tell the property manager before the inspection so that can be rescheduled.

Disposable gloves should be worn and thrown away after the inspection.

Tenants back from overseas, except the Pacific, or in close contact with a confirmed case should be self-isolating for 14 days and should tell the property manager before an inspection, REINZ said.

Kiri Barfoot, a director of Barfoot & Thompson, said last week auction attendance rates remained high.

In a commentary on February statistics, that agency said earlier this month: "The prices buyers were prepared to pay met vendors' expectations and our clearance rate of properties at auction, and by direct negotiation, were close to the numbers we were selling at the height of the 1990s property cycle."

That agency reported 804 sales in February, the highest in that month for five years.