He explained: “The industry is split down the middle. There are agents performing at a high level who understand their product, marketplace and have the skills and knowledge.
“However, there is a great differentiation between what agents provide. We want to make that differentiation tangible by creating a Professional Standards Scheme which goes above and beyond what the regulator wants.
“This takes you into an area of serious ethics and standards which have to be adhered to. If not, you can be expelled from the profession. There are only 17 professions in Australia and we want to be the 18th.”
John added how in the last 10 years, the government has allowed the education standards to drift down allowing people to enter the marketplace completely unprepared.
He added: “Who suffers from that? It’s the consumers, buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants, who get a poorly skilled, poorly trained and uneducated practitioner.
“Our ultimate goal is to be respected in the community. We provide an important service to so many people where we are the solution to many of their problems.
“Disruption only occurs where value is missing and we have to address that urgently in a way that enables consumers get a massive benefit because they are dealing with skilled practitioners.
“This is the greatest opportunity we are ever going to get to come together and provide better consumer outcomes.”