The head of the real-estate industry training organisation says getting more Maori agents could help boost Maori home ownership.
Lesley Southwick says REAL ITO intends to run courses in schools with high Maori or Pacific Island rolls in order to encourage students to consider careers in the industry.
Ms Southwick told Waatea News that fewer than 1% of the country's 17,000 real-estate agents are Maori or Pasifika.
"People like to buy off their own cultures," she says, "so the more successful that Maori become and Pasifika become, then the more they're likely to also want to buy real estate and participate in the industry."
