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Rising property values, listing numbers and buyer demand have contributed to the biggest surge in real estate agents in more than a decade.
According to figures from NSW Fair Trading, there has been a 40 per cent increase over the past year in the number of people obtaining real estate licences, with an additional 50 professionals joining the industry each week.
The number of real estate newcomers acquiring a Certificate of Registration has also increased by 28 per cent over the last 12 months in NSW.
Speaking to Real Estate Business, Strathfield Partners Real Estate managing director Robert Pignataro said the general consensus is “real estate is easy and you can make quick money, when in fact it is a lot of hard work and long hours”.
“When the market is hot everyone thinks it is easier to sell and easier to make money - some of the time they are successful, but in 80 per cent of the cases they are unsuccessful,” he said.
“The minute interest rates come up a quarter of a per cent you will find a quarter of these real estate agents will move, and as soon as it comes up a little bit further you will find that 100 per cent of these agents that just moved into the industry will move out because they are not skilled enough to have the endurance to last long term.”
Bresic Whitney director Ivan Bresic said if you look over the last 20 years, when the residential market has continued to perform well there has been an influx of new people wanting to enter the industry.
“And it is true, when the market cools there has been a good proportion of agents leaving the industry as well,” he told Real Estate Business.
“I will say that it is not rewarding for everyone, it is very rewarding for the top 20 per cent of agents in the country.
“It is probably fair and reasonable for 50 per cent of the industry, and I will say for 30 per cent of the salespeople in the country it is just not worth it.”
Mr Bresic said real estate is also one of the easiest industries to get into.
“Someone who is in advertising or law or runs a restaurant can decide tomorrow they want to get into real estate and do a certificate of real estate course, which takes a week, and ultimately start applying for jobs with very little or no experience,” he said.
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