breaking news

Agents eye higher wages

2813 people have read this article
Thursday, 05 January 2012

Real estate professionals will enjoy higher salaries this year, a leading property recruitment firm has claimed.

Speaking in Melbourne yesterday, Buckmaster Hawkey director Mark Appleby said high staff turnover in the real estate sector should pave the way for greater wages in 2012.

“The feedback I’m getting from real estate agents is that while the property market remains robust, turnover of staff is increasing and looks set to rise in 2012,” Mr Appleby said.

“That’s great news for candidates but not such wonderful news for employers. A rise in job vacancies with the same numbers of new candidates means salaries must rise in 2012.

“At Buckmaster Hawkey we’ve noticed the competition for talent intensifying over the last few months and I think this is set to escalate in the first half of 2012.

“Unless we see a significant new source of new people entering the property industry, the market is set for a crisis. Increasingly, agencies are being forced to bidup the salary packages they offer to attract candidates, but the task of securing experienced staff is getting more and more difficult.”

Mr Appleby said this trend is likely to result in a wages breakout this year.

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0 #6 Nexus789 2012-01-22 18:07
Yes....they go out of business as the bloated industry declines to match the diminishing activity in the inflated housing market. Same as all the other activities and services related to property - hardware supplies, construction, renovation, etc.

Does not matter how much they would like to pay themselves as many will be sitting around doing nothing quite soon.
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+2 #5 Leah Calnan 2012-01-10 13:14
What a self interested article for the recruitment agency. I find it fascinating that the wage increases being suggested by the recruitment agency would of course generate a nice financial interest to their business. There are agencies out there that place someone and then 12-18 months down the track they then make contact with them again to see if they are interested in other opportunities with other companies. And people say real estate agents have no ethics!!
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0 #4 Paul Anderson 2012-01-06 08:03
I was reading the QLD agent award a few months ago. Is my understanding about the car allowance / phone allowance for agents being mandatory in 2014 correct?
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0 #3 Stephen Thompson 2012-01-05 19:00
I agree with Michael Whittaker 100%. Yes I believe all Property Management staff are worth more than they are currently paid for the jobs they do and the people they deal with. But unless commissions increase the average business will not be able to sustain anyw age increases and many agencies in our area have actually been trimming off staff over the last 12 months. Looks like we will continue to have interesting times ahead.
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0 #2 Ian Ford 2012-01-05 18:10
I agree with Michael Whittaker. However one aspect not mentioned is productivity. As agents have both fixed and variable expenses a suitable outcome and a win -win for both agents and salespersons is to incentivise the calculation of payments with a stepped commission structure. Of course this is not the only way but I throw that in for starters and hope that it stimulates some interesting and fruitful discussion. Looking forward to criticism and new ideas.
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+2 #1 Michael Whittaker 2012-01-05 15:47
Interesting article, there has been a lot of discussion about discounting fees and what agents charge, now there is talk of wages rising, well something will have to give in my opinion. This could mean that competition will diminish as wages rise and supposedly commissions fall. There is talk of many agents struggling to make a profit, so would this mean commissions charged may have to rise. The industry cannot sustain increased wages and dropping commissions something does not match up here.
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