What is happening in the Real Estate jobs marketplace? - Part I

 So this seems to be the big question that everyone wants to know at the moment “what is occurring within the real estate employment marketplace right now and what will happen in the coming year”.

For the past 3-5 years the marketplace has been slightly unstable and unpredictable, so is it going to change for the better and will the marketplace revert back to “normal”. 

Here is what I discussed recently with Kris Bondin – CEO of MovingHub on TickerTV’s property segment.

In recent years we have seen a decline in roles related to the pre-development market (e.g. sales, project sales). Pretty much overnight in 2018 we saw an immediate drop in project sales roles – due to a number of factors including changes to VISA laws and government changes to foreign investment. 

The exodus of sales agents that we saw in 2018 seems to have eased with the positive sentiment coming in to 2020. It was reported last year in the AFR that almost 15,000 agents left the marketplace since the peak of the market in 2017.

We continue to see an incline in roles such as property management, strata management and building management that have come as an effect of the development boom, and growth of apartment living in our capital cities.

Due to the decline in the Real Estate marketplace we have seen a lot of Principals and Owners take a more hands-on approach, stepping back in to their businesses in either Leadership / Management capacities or as revenue earners. Due to this we have seen an increase in junior operational roles, allowing senior staff to free up their time and assist with the day to day running of businesses from an admin perspective.

Another factor to be observed is the lean towards hiring commission only agents to eliminate the risk to hefty overheads or under-performers in a stock-tight market. As we know, this reduces the pool of available candidates given the Real Estate Licensing requirements.