Slump in agents’ income revealed for first time in ...

Agents’ declining income - the result of the lockdown and the collapse in transaction volumes - has been revealed for the first time.

Comparison website GetAgent looked at the average fee charged by estate agents and the total potential value of residential transactions.

Back in the financial year of 2015-2016, the average estate agent charged a fee of 1.3 per cent plus VAT which equated to £2,622 on the average house price of £201,695.

Now, five years later, the average fee has dropped marginally to 1.25 per cent plus VAT; however, the typical house price has climbed to £231,906.

That means the average agent has seen income from each transaction climb by 10.6 per cent to £2,899, not including VAT.

However, GetAgent calculates there has been an 11.8 per cent drop in transactions compared to this point in previous years.

This has produced - across the industry - a shortfall in fees of some £86.4m.

“The property industry has endured a tough couple of months and the government’s lockdown of the market has had a notable impact on transactions and as a result, the revenue of many agents. This struggle is likely to continue over the coming months as we inevitably see a further reduction in transactions” according to GetAgent founder Colby Short.

“Many [agents] will have to knuckle down, manage overheads and potentially jettison branch offices. Some may also reconsider Rightmove as one of their biggest expenses” he adds.

Keith Russell
04 June 2020 08:55 AM

I started my career in 1982, where I first took home £150.00 per month as trainee. My Parents said I was being taken advantage of but I could see the future. Literally 3 years later I reached the dizzy heights of earning 38k in 1985. I cannot work out the relativity to income that would be today, but I do know at 21 I owned a house bought for £135,000 which I know today would be worth £700,000, so this does put this into some perspective. All this being due to unbelievable numbers of transactions. I remember well that our week started on Saturday, where our target of agreed sales by close of play on the Monday was 7 or 8 properties. We tended to eventually sell around 12-15 properties per week and complete on around 40 properties a month. This did only bring in about 60k but with an office commission of 5% plus a mere basic of 10k the commission was the driving factor. Those were the days where we literally worked from 8am - 8pm 13 days on 1 day off. At one point the directors made us open on Wednesdays until 10pm, which when only having a phone on your desk meant we personally contacted people right up until this time. I don't think people would do this today but they were great fun.... no Political Correctness in sight. Although as a non smoker it would have been nice to be in an office that wasn't full of ashtrays and smoke. I expect there are others out there that remember these days, but thought I would share this with people in this industry that joined after the mad 80's.