Online and Americanised models of self-employed agency have deterred new agents from entering the sector amid a wider decline of professionals working in the sector, GetAgent claims.
The estate agency comparison website analysed ONS Labour Force Survey data looking at employment figures within the real estate sector, splitting the workforce by those who are employed versus those who are self-employed.
Its analysis found that while the number of people in estate agent-related jobs is down overall, the dip has been larger among the self-employed, a setup usually more associated with online or franchise model agents.
The research found that in 2022 to date, there are an average of 331,688 property professionals within the fully employed UK real estate sector.
In contrast, there are just 65,901 who class themselves as self-employed, equating to just 17% of total real estate employees across the UK property market.
While the proportion of property professionals working as self-employed has crept up from 16% in 2021, it remains off the peak of 19% seen in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
On an annual basis, the level of property professionals operating within the UK market has also dropped on both fronts.
So far in 2022, the average number of self-employed property professionals is down by 1% on 2021, while this decline sits at 3.7% across the fully employed sector.
In 2021, the level of self-employed workers fell by 11.7% year-on-year versus a 7.9% increase across the fully employed sector.
This trend is also apparent when analysing the figures based on the current and pre-pandemic market, with the number of those working within the fully employed sector up by 7% versus a 10.3% decline across the self-employed space since 2019.
When looking at each sector’s growth over the past five years, the level of staff within the fully employed sector has increased by 17%, while the number of self-employed property professionals has increased by just 0.05%.
Mal McCallion, chief operating officer at GetAgent, suggested the self-employment decline could also be related to the ongoing legal action by Purplebricks over how local property experts were categorised and the benefits they were entitled to.
McCallion said: “The UK property sector offers an abundance of employment opportunities whether you opt to go it alone or to work within the traditional structure of employment, but it’s clear that those on the front line have opted for the greater security of the latter during what has been a very tough pandemic period.
“Although this data covers a myriad of roles within property, it’s also fair to say that the declining trend of self-employed workers is particularly apparent within estate agency.
“Online agents have struggled to grow their human element, while at the same time, the Americanised model of self-employed estate agency is yet to really take off.
“It’s hardly surprising that the majority of agents remain within the tried and tested format of the traditional sector.”
He said there is also a strong chance that the declining number of self-employed property professionals will have been heavily influenced by the legal action taken against Purplebricks, adding: “Perhaps the most worrying trend revealed by this data is a decline in the number of property professionals across the board, at a time when they are sorely needed to keep the market moving in what promises to be a difficult few months, if not longer.”
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That's because not everyone is good enough or brave enough to take the plunge.
Why would you work your nuts off for someone else?
The model works and saves vendors thousands in fees compared to High Street agents...
17 years and counting....
I have been working the exp model for over 1.5 years, after 22 years of being on the high street.
In 1,5 years the business has more than doubled in size in the UK and numbers continue to grow. I believe Its the future! particularly for an experienced estate agents take up. The benefits have been incredible,
65000 hybrid / american style brokers? I think not!!!
Someone in the analysis department at Get Agent needs to do some urgent sense checking of this type of story BEFORE they make utter fools of themselves.
They clearly don't understand the data they're analysing.
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