Estate agents making less money compared to 15 years ago
The slow real estate market has had a huge impact on real estate agents. What estate agents earn has decreased considerably over the last 15 years and it now takes quite longer to sell a property than it took in 2001 to 2007 period.
The property market did remarkably well during the purple patch from 2000 to 20007, according to property expert, Ronald Ennik. He says well trained real estate agents were earning commission around 5.5%. “The tempo of the then homes market was reflected in the fact that the nationwide number of estate agents swelled from 25 000 to 80 000 – driven by the allure of a buoyant property market,” he says.
Ennik says in 2008 (just one year), South Africa’s real estate agent force dropped from 80 000 to around 17 000 as market conditions deteriorated. Prices went down by 15%, and volumes remained low.
“Home prices have continued to lag inflation – for the last 10 years. This all came together to create a far tougher operating environment for the core of professional agents who have ridden the storm. They are now earning decidedly less, in real terms, than they were 15 years ago. Furthermore, they have additional best-practice hurdles to jump these days,” Ennik adds.
