Do We Really Need 35,251 Property Agents In Singapore?

All hail the digital generation (of property agents)

As of this year, we have around 35,251 property agents, up from 34,427 last year; which when we consider how much they like flyers, makes it amazing there are any trees left. 

But this is despite the fact that the property market is starting to cool, and we may even be headed for a correction. This is the opposite of what you might expect, as it’s during the boom market that most people start thinking it’s easy money. 

I then wondered if there was a correlation between how well the property market is doing, and how many agents are there. 

Here’s what I found:

As you can see, it is quite correlated in terms of the peaks and troughs. But given there could be a delay in terms of price moving before people start to act (and as the new agents need to pass their exams, get their licenses, etc.) – here’s how it looks when we add in a year delay in terms of prices:

So if we look at how prices move, there’s now an even closer correlation with the number of property agents entering the market. Now that we’ve incorporated the one-year delay, we can see that property prices and the number of property agents in Singapore are much more in sync.

Now as of 2024, some of these new agents are late to the party. They noticed the post-Covid property goldmine in 2023; but it’s too bad that, just as they got their licenses at the start of this year, the market is beginning to cool. 

But market conditions aside, I think there’s another reason for the eagerness to join the industry. I’ve seen an increasing number of younger agents, who cite property videos on YouTube, or interior tours on Instagram, as the thing that sparked their interest. 

Consider how properties today are marketed: we’ve gone from classified ads, to property portals, to digital content with video and Instagrammable interiors. 

The skills of a YouTuber or Instagram model are arguably more relevant to property marketing than ever before. And among the younger crowd (who don’t seem too happy with the conventional job market by the way), this is something that they get. I think it’s starting to dawn on them that, when it comes to digital property marketing, main character syndrome isn’t frowned upon. Behaving like that is an advantage. 

The younger generation of agents are more exposed to online content, and have a better sense of what works. They know what sort of posts attract clicks, they know how to present themselves on social media; and when they create content, it comes off as less pretentious than my generation’s attempts. 

But that leads to the question of how many property agents we need

The number of agents has hovered around 30,000 to 35,000 for many years; and even around a decade ago, many asked if so many agents are necessary. 

We have an increasing number of avenues for people to buy or even list properties without agents; the HDB resale portal will also come about soon. Fewer tenants like to use leasing agents, and some buyers these days even shun the use of a buyer’s agent. 

Now I’m not saying the age of property agents is at an end; far from it (in fact, here’s a long explanation as to why agents are still important). 

But I worry that some property agencies have given up on nurturing better agents, and instead just gone for casting the widest net possible (e.g., if one in 10 agents are actual talents, they don’t try turning that ratio into five or six out of 10; instead they just get 10,000 new recruits, and leave the less talented ones are left to perish Lord-of-the-Flies style). 

When agencies just start going for numbers like that, service quality sinks like a brick in a bathtub. Buyers and sellers are forced to sift through multiple bad agents, to get to the genuinely good ones. 

Still, on the plus side, taking on younger and more tech-savvy agents might make up for this. It improves the odds of a quicker transaction; and some clients are more satisfied at seeing nice promotional videos, Instagram pics, etc. Quite a few have told me that it simply feels like they’re getting their money’s worth. 

This may even be sufficient to convince buyers and sellers to work with agents again, despite the increasing avenues for DIY property transactions.

Meanwhile in other property news:

• So you want to live near a landed enclave for peace and quiet, but you don’t want a mortgage that your great-grandchildren will be paying off. Okay, here are the most affordable options. 
• What’s more magical than seeing a unicorn? A three-bedder priced below $1.2 million in Singapore. Experience the magic here. 

• Dual-key units: when you buy one, it feels like you fought IRAS and won. Here’s what it’s like to live in one at Whistler Grand. 
• While I think property agents get a bad rep sometimes, some of them may deserve it. 
• What’s it like being a homeowner as early as your mid-twenties? One of them explains it all

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