It’s not fair! UK agents receive less commission than other countries

Shocking new data proves estate agents in the UK are earning less sales commission than other comparable countries.

Agents in this country receive the smallest fees across nearly all eight of the world’s biggest property markets, according to analysis by international self-employed agency platform IAD UK.

The data shows that the highest estate agent commissions are in France, where the average fee stands at 5.8%.

Bottom

Agents in the USA and Italy are both charging average fees of 5.5%. In Spain, the average is 5%, followed by UAE (3%), Malaysia (2.5%), and Australia (2.3%).

At the bottom of the pack is the UK where the average agent commission is 1.2%.

With a current average house price of £289,824, the UK has the third most expensive market on the list, but agents are only generating an average of £3,420 from each sale.

Only agents in Malaysia (£1,966) are taking home less money than in the UK.

American agents earn £15,927 per sale, and in France, they’re getting £12,101.

It’s the result of a race to the bottom that has taken place over many, many years.”

Lee O’Brien, MD at iad UK (main picture), says: “Our agents are clearly not being valued highly enough, or valuing themselves highly enough.

“It’s the result of a race to the bottom that has taken place over many, many years, where agents compete for instructions by boasting the lowest fee. These issues were exacerbated with the arrival of fixed-fee agency models,” he says.

“Why is it that we don’t respect our agents enough to believe they’re worth proper payment, but they do in other nations like France and the US?”

Only a ‘fifth of agents are capable of achieving higher fees’