More property agents amid rosier housing outlook

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More property agents amid rosier housing outlook

Jan 5, 2018

Collective sales boost mood but number of agents 'not sustainable' with disruptive tech

Rachel Au-Yong


A more optimistic property market last year led to a bump in the number of registered property agents this year, reversing a three-year slide.

There were 28,571 registered property agents in Singapore as of Monday, 174 more than last year, according to figures from the Council of Estate Agents (CEA) yesterday.

The CEA's director of policy and licensing Chia I-Ling said that the increase could be attributed to a "positive outlook on the real estate market".

This was particularly evident in the private market, said Mr Thomas Tan, president of the 3,500 member-strong Singapore Estate Agents Association. Pent-up demand pushed total private home transactions to 23,113 from January to November last year, compared with 16,378 for the whole of 2016.

Mr Tan said last year's collective sale fever helped to boost sentiment among agents, new and old. "Developers were feeling bullish, so they made attractive collective sale offers, and that sentiment passed on to agents."

Indeed, more new agents - 1,344 of them - entered the market last year, higher than the 1,189 in 2016 and the 1,299 in 2015.

But even as the number of registered agents is on the rise, the number of agencies continued to dwindle. There were 1,269 registered agencies as of Monday, compared with 1,286 last year and 1,369 in 2016. Mr Lim Yong Hock, key executive officer of the largest firm PropNex Realty, said "many small to mid-sized firms might choose not to continue operating on their own and will instead consolidate their business with the bigger players".

Last year saw four agencies merge to pool resources: PropNex and Dennis Wee Group did so in June, while OrangeTee and Edmund Tie & Company joined forces in August. PropNex is now the largest firm with 6,684 agents, giving it more than 800 agents over the second-largest ERA Realty.

National University of Singapore real estate professor Sing Tien Foo said the current total number of agents is not sustainable, especially with new technology sure to disrupt the industry. A more realistic figure would be about 15,000 to 20,000 agents, he said.

He pointed to a new Housing Board resale portal launched on Monday, which could help buyers and sellers bypass an agent should they choose to.

"The reality is that agents must make sure their services are required, not just 'good to have'," he said, adding that those who help to only put up listings or arrange viewings will have their work replicated by portals in time to come.

"What is harder to replace is their market knowledge and bargaining abilities," he said. "Agents also have to offer value-added services, like financing advice or linking new home owners up with interior designers."

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More property agents in 2017 due to positive market outlook

Agencies are investing in training and development programmes for their agents in order for them to remain relevant

Fri, Jan 05, 2018

Navin Sregantan


WITH the Singapore real estate market on the mend, more individuals have signed up as registered property agents.

According to The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), it issued 66 new property agency licences and 1,344 new property agent registrations in 2017.

These registrations bring the total number of agents to 28,571 as at Jan 1, 2018, a 0.6 per cent increase from 28,397 on Jan 1, 2017.

The increase comes despite 44 property agency licences and 2,028 property agent registrations having lapsed after Dec 31, 2017, added the CEA, the government agency that regulates Singapore's real estate agency industry.

Commenting on the increase in the population of the estate agency industry in Singapore, Chia I-Ling, CEA's director, policy & licencing, said: "The increase in the number of registered agents could be due to a positive outlook on the real estate market."

PropNex Realty's key executive officer Lim Yong Hock commented that the uptick in property agents in the past year may be a result of an increasing number of younger individuals joining the industry. He added that they were drawn to real estate as the profession was "no longer deemed as a mid-career switch option, but instead a long-term rewarding career".

Eugene Lim, key executive officer of ERA Realty - which has 5,882 agents - shared the same sentiment, with many of its new hires being younger and better-educated individuals.

"Two-thirds of all our agents are below 45 years of age with more than 60 per cent holding degrees or diplomas," he said.

While there were more agents in the last year, the number of licenced property agencies in Singapore fell from 1,286 in 2016 to 1,269 in 2017. The 0.6 per cent fall was due in part to industry consolidation, such as PropNex's merger with Dennis Wee Realty, forming Singapore's largest property agency with 6,684 agents.

OrangeTee and Edmund Tie & Company also established a joint venture, becoming the third-biggest player with 3,898 agents. The 10 biggest property agencies in Singapore now employ close to 80 per cent of agents.

However, Mr Lim Yong Hock noted that consolidation was not only reserved for larger players. "We are witnessing a change in the real estate industry scene where many small- to mid-sized firms might choose not to continue operating on their own and will instead consolidate their business with the bigger players," he said.

Noting that the property industry has had to battle the digital disruption in recent years, Ms Chia said: "The CEA encourages property agents to upskill and leverage technology to keep pace with the changing business environment and meet increasing consumer expectations."

These are views not lost on both PropNex and ERA as they have invested in a number of training and development programmes for their agents in order to remain relevant in the industry.

Moreover, Mr Eugene Lim added that customers are also more well informed and have often done basic research on the properties they wish to purchase.

Agreeing that the property market is recovering, he noted that ERA's revenue in the first nine months of 2017 was up 30.3 per cent from the same period the previous year.

"It is a clear signal that 2017 was better and the market has the momentum to get better in 2018," he added.