REIA elects new president and deputy president

The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has elected Victoria’s Neville Sanders as president and Western Australia’s Hayden Groves as deputy president after their Canberra-based Annual General Meeting yesterday.

Sanders is a third generation real estate agent with more than 48 years of industry experience and replaces outgoing president Peter Bushby, from Tasmania, who held the role for two years.

A member of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) since 1971 and a member of the REIV Board in 2006, Sanders is currently the general manager of Whittles Australia and an REIA fellow.

He is a qualified valuer, vice chairperson of the REIV Owners Corporation Chapter committee and an REIV accredited owners’ corporation manager.

“Peter has provided excellent stewardship of the organisation since 2012 and during that time he has achieved much in ensuring that our members have a strong national voice,” Sanders said.

“On behalf of the board and staff, we extent our sincere thanks to Peter for his professionalism and commitment to the role during an important chapter in REIA’s history.”

He also welcomed Groves to the deputy president position.

Groves has owned Dethridge GROVES since 2004, previously working as a sales representative. He is the deputy president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia and president of the Real Estate Employers’ Federation WA.

“Next year will be an equally important one for the sector with the release of the much anticipated Government white paper into taxation. I see it as an absolute priority that agents have a national voice at the table on tax reform in advocating for the abolition of stamp duty funded by an increase in GST and the retention of negative gearing,” Sanders said.