Agents return to pre-pandemic working patterns amid new challenges

Estate agents are back to their pre-pandemic working patterns but some are now facing financial struggles, an industry survey claims.

Property data company the Landmark Information Group conducted 100 interviews with senior representatives at estate agencies in England, Scotland and Wales to assess the current state of the market.

The research found that three quarters of firms are “more-or-less back to pre-pandemic working patterns,” mainly from the office while a similar figure reported a strong year in terms of turnover.

However, challenges remain with 49% saying it has been a difficult financial year.

The main concerns over the next 12 months were how the economic climate will hit the property market, cited by three quarters of respondents, while around two thirds each highlighted issues of cybersecurity and compliance.

Protracted transaction timescales, cashflow and technology adoption were also highlighted as concerns by respondents.

Half of respondents said they found it challenging to keep up to date with the latest anti-money laundering, fraud and cybersecurity updates while 43% have struggled to progress transactions at an optimal pace.

Landmark claims there are growing problems with onboarding, with 81% agreeing that the process of signing up clients can be time-consuming, up from 68% last year.

The majority of respondents agreed that onboarding a vendor requires too many manual interventions which can slow the process and create the potential for human error and 66% agree the process is too cumbersome.

Ben Robinson, managing director for estate agency services at Landmark, said: "It is a concern that the majority of agents see onboarding as a time-consuming burden and that this is an increase on last year when in fact in can be an asset done well and easily outsourced/automated.

"Effective transactions start with onboarding correctly and making sure the right people, are involved with the right data, in the right format at the right time. Done right it provides legislative protection and leads to a quicker, more certain pipeline – more money for the same amount of work. We see this in action in other markets, including Scotland and auctions.

"There are plenty of options to automate and outsource the process to help make this happen and now is the time right to get these in place."