The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has welcomed a finding by the state’s auditor general that the Department of Commerce’s oversight of the real estate industry is sound. Western Australia's auditor general Colin Murphy released his report into the regulation of the state's more than 45,00 real estate agents and more than 800 settlement agents and found the state has sound oversight in place, and the risk of direct financial loss for people buying or selling homes remained low.

Murphy found that new measures to reduce the risk of fraudulent property sales are strong enough to prevent a repeat of recent scams where Nigerian-based fraudsters sold two Perth homes without the owners knowing. In 2010, a man had his Karrinyup duplex sold for $485,000 by Nigerian-based scammers pretending to be him while he was living in Cape Town, South Africa, and a year later, a Ballajura home owner returned from overseas to discover that Nigerian criminals had also sold their house for $400,000. Stronger identity checks were then put in place, and anyone wanting to sell their home from overseas must also now present themselves to an Australian consular officer.

REIWA President David Airey said consumers were well served by the Department of Commerce and its Consumer Affairs division which showed that real estate industry complaints were very low given the significant number of transactions annually. “WA has the highest take-up up real estate agents’ services in the country, with the vast majority of sellers and landlords choosing the professional services of licensed agents,” said Airey. “It’s gratifying to be reassured by the Auditor General that the regulatory system is working well, not only for the industry but also for buyers, sellers and tenants."