Agents highlight main gripes after ‘difficult’ 2023 - research

More than half of agents have cited 2023 as a difficult financial year, research has revealed.

Analysis by data firm Landmark Estate Agency Services, asked property professionals to rank their main concerns and issues halting their progress.

Half said they were struggling to progress transactions at an optimal pace, blaming market challenges, the time it takes to complete and the growing regulatory and administrative burden.

The current economic climate was ranked as the top concern for agents – among three quarters.

Another 70% of agents are concerned about cybersecurity, while 68% were worried about standing out from the crowd and differentiating themselves from their competitors.

Administration was also a big issue among respondents ,with 85% agreeing that existing client onboarding processes are too time-consuming and fragmented, while 73% think too many manual checks or processes make risk management prone to human error.

Ben Robinson, managing director of Landmark Estate Agency Services, said: “By uncovering and understanding the frustrations of estate agents across the UK, our research offers an open view of how the property industry can better share information and work more closely across the transactional process.  

“It is clear there continues to be a real appetite to improve the way we buy and sell houses – using technology to streamline workflows, while speeding up transactions and reducing the time spent on admin. The new trading standards rules announced last week should go some way to addressing this, but there remains a need for a concerted cross-industry effort.”