It has been a long time that we have been hearing about the slowing down of the property transactions in Singapore and Malaysia. The prices in Singapore are also softening, especially the luxury ones and to a lesser extent, even the HDB ones. With less to fight for, the number of licensed real estate agents are also on a downtrend. In Singapore, with the current market sentiment and situation, there are a lower number of new property agents entering while some are choosing to just let their license lapse. (As per Council for Estate Agencies)
Current total property agents are at 30,830. I know this is down because 2 years ago, I have come to know that there were already 31,000 agents in Singapore. Thus, the number for 2015 is smaller than even the number that I know 2 years ago. Last year, there were a total of close to 32,000 agents. Total new agents are at 3,006 versus 3,336 a year ago and in 2013 it was 4,567! Yes, times are changing. The current number fortunately is still higher than the total in 2012 which was at 30,577 but the difference is very small.
Singapore’s having full employment and it’s Unemployment number is lower than 2%. This meant that there are more jobs waiting for you than there are talents which is the major reason why for many years Singapore has been attracting foreign talents too. Recently, these hiring of foreigners become much harder and I think this may be one reason why some of these agents are going back into the corporate world. Perhaps the new openings are indeed much more attractive as there are now restrictions in hiring foreigners before trying to fill it with a citizen first. However, I think when the times are better, many of these agents would be back. The reason being, when you are a property agent, there are actually no limits to your earning. As long as the market is good, sky is the limit to how much one can do. It should not be too long, hopefully.
written on 22 Jan 2015
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