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Brendan Wong
Real estate is a career path few young Australians aspire to, according to new research.
The National Centre for Vocational Education and Research’s study of over 2,000 kids found many aspired to be lawyers, psychologists, designers and veterinarians at age 15, yet not many - in fact none - wanted to be a real estate agent.
Director of RT Edgar and finalist in the Australian Real Estate Awards Glen Coutino told Real Estate Business he was not surprised by the result.
“Most of the people in sales, including myself, fell into real estate by chance or when looking for life change,” he said.
“It’s a job people fall into because they want freedom, security and a change of lifestyle. It doesn’t seem like an exciting job as a kid. The only kids who want to be in real estate are the children of agents.”
Director of Raine&Horne Newtown Gerard Hill said real estate was not considered a “sexy profession” and that there was a stigma attached to it.
“I can understand younger people wanting to be fireman, police, ambulance people, solicitors and doctors," he told Real Estate Business.
“I think for those that do decide and have got the right idea of what real estate is about, they get very focused on it because at the end of the day, if you’re a good agent you can make a small fortune out of it."
Like Mr Coutino, Mr Hill said he fell into real estate after his father’s friend, who was an agent, encouraged him to consider it as a possible career.
The 2,000 students from the study were interviewed again 10 years later and according to the study, a majority ended up as sales assistants, primary school teachers and retail mangers.
About 60 per cent of students wanted careers that only 20 per cent could attain, the study found. Amongst the most unattainable jobs were designers and illustrators, psychologists, veterinarians, journalists, actors and dancers, architects and landscape architects.
According to the results of the reseach, accounting was the occupation that had the highest chance of becoming a reality, with 2.2 per cent of the 2.9 per cent of 15 year-olds who wanted to become accountants fulfilling their goal.
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