Trade Me: Some agents will pay less

It has moved from a flat-fee system for advertisements for houses for sale, to a rate of $159 per listing, plus GST.

That prompted 18 offices, mostly in Hamilton and Hawke's Bay, to remove their listings from the site.

But head of commercial Jimmy McGee said the move was to bring the website's prices in line with the value it offered real estate agents and their clients.

“Under the new model, we believe our fee for agents of less than $200 + GST per listing until the property is sold still represents great value for money to vendors and their agents, about 1% of the commission an agent will get on an average-priced house.”

He said the fee per listing would make it easier for agents to be transparent and fair about how they passed on costs.

But he said the rule was not hard and fast. "As with almost any commercial deal under the sun, we're open to offering discounts for volume, too."

He said about a quarter of real estate offices would pay less under the new structure.

"Over time we think this change will settle down and we’ll be one of the marketing options that a vendor can choose.”

Property commentator Alistair Helm has criticised agents for using vendors as “pawns” in their battle with Trade Me.  He said vendors in Hamilton and Hawkes Bay were missing out on valuable marketing because of their agents' new policy not to list on Trade Me.

He said today there was no sign of any change of the boycott. There are still fewer properties in those regions listed for sale on Trade Me than on Realestate.co.nz

McGee said the boycott was a bad result for vendors. "Pulling down listings from Trade Me Property means fewer people will see the house for sale, which means the vendor is less likely to sell, or get the the best price."

Trade Me had written to some of the vendors whose ads had been pulled, offering to reinstate them for nothing.

The Commerce Commission said earlier this month it was looking into the boycott.