Industry blog: huge rise in agents recruiting more staff

James Huntly, director of estate agency recruitment specialist Dove & Hawk, writes a new blog for EAT, keeping his finger on the pulse regarding staffing levels in the industry:

 
The abolition of HIPs has seen some estate agents disgruntled that another revenue stream has been taken away. This is revenue that will reportedly leave a £75m hole in the pocket of estate agents.

Ministers estimate the move will save consumers around £870m during the coming years. Although it will hit the 10,000 people who work in the industry, costing an estimated 3,000 jobs, we certainly aren’t seeing a huge influx in candidates from the HIPs sector rush back into the property market, even though it has seen an increase in jobs of around 25% since April.

This rise could be a direct result of the UK election and the estate agency workforce taking heed that the new Government will be doing its utmost to create confidence within the marketplace.
 
The Property Management sector has seen demand rise across the whole vertical: for example, we have recently had to expand our property management team to cope with the demand of a 150% rise in vacancies since January. The dramatic rise is due to the number of new vacancies for residential property managers we’ve seen, totalling 75% of the new vacancies in this sector.
 
Commercial Agency figures have seen only a slight increase of around 10% since April, not enough to say the sector has recovered. Pre-recession saw a massive demand for jobs, but commercial agency deals tend to take longer, which will play a part in the decision-making process for any agent seeking a move. We saw a 70% decrease in vacancies in the commercial sector during the recession and only now is it showing the slightest signs of recovery.
 
Residential Sales and Lettings are the leading light for most recruiters: you only have to see how many new free job portals have arrived to get in on the action. The figures for these sectors continue to show good signs of recovery, with vacancies reaching a strong 40% rise since the start of the year.
 
If we break these figures down, then we see that almost 70% of the vacancies in the London area are lettings and management positions, compared to a figure of around 35% outside the M25. With London becoming such a heavy attraction for letting agents, we’re seeing a stronger pool of lettings candidates over sales. In other areas such as Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey, we have seen sales vacancies compared to lettings at a ratio of 3:1, thus increasing the choice clients have for sales candidates in these areas.
 
In summary, most property recruitment agencies are seeing record vacancy levels. In fact, we’re constantly seeing reports from recruiters who say they have had “the best month since …”. To be fair, the property recruitment industry is genuinely seeing these sorts of figures: with us, there has been a 65% rise in vacancies from the start of the year and 120% rise since this time last year. This is in no small part down to most clients cutting back perhaps too much and now seeking the back-up they need to deal with the demand.
 
Estate agents still seem to lack confidence when seeking to better their career. This is through no fault of their own – after all, the UK economy has just been through its worst recession in over 100 years. We have still survived, though, despite being one of the nation’s most hated professions, beaten only by politicians and traffic wardens.
 
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