The government is putting pressure on the Real Estate Institute to put in place regulatory measures to discipline members.
Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove wants an independent watchdog appointed.
Institute president Murray Cleland says a Real Estate Ombudsman has been suggested and it is an option they favour.
He says the institute is drawing up a proposal to put to Cosgrove during a meeting on December 14.
Australian consumer advocate Neil Jenman recently said compared to the rest of the world the real estate industry in New Zealand would probably be "the most unethical and the most dishonest".
"In New Zealand your real estate industry is controlled by the real estate industry which is hilarious. It's kind of like handing over the street crime to the mafia," said Jenman.
Deb Leask complained after putting her two townhouses on Napier's West Shore on the market with an agent at CD Realty, trading as Bayley's Real Estate.
Leask had told the agent she wanted $400,000 and when he rang her with an offer of $220,000 she told him not to waste her time. But she later discovered the buyer was another real estate agent. Further inquiries showed the buyer was in the same office as the same office as the agent she was dealing through and was their residential property manager.
Leask says it was never mentioned that the two men were real estate agents from the same firm.
Both townhouses were eventually sold by Harvey's Real Estate for a total of $369,000.
