Interview with Ms Cath Hart, CEO of REIWA

REIWA is Western Australia’s real estate institute, the peak body for the real estate profession in the state. REIWA is a member-based organisation representing over 1,100 agencies and more than 90 per cent of operating real estate agents in WA.

In February, REIWA appointed Ms Cath Hart as their new CEO, following the footsteps of the previous CEO, Mr Neville Pozzi. He has retired after 45 years at the Institute and the last ten as CEO. Ms Hart commenced her new role on the 2nd of May, and she looks back on that period with happiness and joy.

"I received such a wonderful warm welcome from the industry, and my LinkedIn melted down with messages and new connection requests."

With a background in the residential building sector, the connection with real estate already existed, but she did not expect this welcoming response from the industry as she did. Ms Hart was also very proud of how the team at REIWA responded to her appointment, as she met with the team and felt she got the best job in Western Australia.

From the moment Ms Hart hit the ground running as CEO, many things have been happening in our industry. Ms Hart described the current affairs as an "issues-rich environment." Ms Hart believes that during these moments, advocacies such as REIWA are most needed as the institute can provide information to their members and the industry and explain what it means when there is a change of government, how the market will adapt to the higher interest rates and other factors within the current affairs.

"There is never a dull moment when we go through these developments at an institute like REIWA."

As Ms Hart has been settling into her role and having her feet under her desk for a few months now, she has exciting plans for the future. In the short term, she wants to focus on current affairs like rising interest rates, how this affects West Australians, and reviews of the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 and the Commercial Tenancy (Retail Shops) Agreements Act 1985, which are currently underway.

"We are the most affordable state in Australia. The interest rate increases will have a moderated effect here. There is always the classic market reactions where WA reacts the opposite way compared to the markets over east."

Ms Hart explained that it is essential for Government to understand that we need investors in the market which will increase the availability of rental homes and avoid further price increases due to limited offers on the market as we are seeing now.?Supposed Residential and Retail Real Estate is too heavily regulated; in that case, regulation could prevent new investors from entering the market, which would be counterproductive for all parties within real estate.

Looking forward to the long-term developments at REIWA and our industry, Ms Hart sees that the institute will push on the fact that they are an advocacy body between the government and the members of the industry. She wants to help translate issues or ideas from the government to the industry and the other way around. Her plans for REIWA from a commercial point of view are to build stronger relationships with commercial agencies and help bring the people back into our city to help the tenancies in our CBD and surrounding suburbs. REIWA also wants to focus on the number of transactions, so Western Australia needs to focus on population growth.

"We need to make WA the best place to live and do business in the world, so we want to be part of the conversation around how we attract people to come here and for businesses to base themselves here. This participation is a pivotal role for the institute to play."

Finally, Ms Hart had a message for the real estate professionals and members. She circled back to earlier in the year when she received such a wonderful warm welcome. "Everybody has been generous in reaching out to me and inviting me to meet with them at their businesses."

An essential part of the CEO of REIWA is to understand what happens to businesses out there so that the institute can help them by bringing their messages of what concerns them or what they would like the government to be aware of and actively lobby in favour of their interest.

The role of an industry association and institute is to be like a translator. When the Government provides an update, we need to bring that message across and prepare templates and bulletins so that the managers and business owners can continue running their businesses. And the translation also goes the other way. Ms Hart's message to the real estate professionals, REIWA's members, and the businesses out there is to keep inviting her over as she would like to stay informed of what is happening in the streets of Western Australia.