Estate agencies face an unprecedented shortage of candidates to fill posts as many tool-up to cope with the still booming property market, it has been claimed, exacerbated by an ‘exodus’ to the hybrid, self-employed work style.

Anthony Hesse, MD of leading industry recruitment firm Property Personnel, says his clients’ experiences mirror those reported within the recent KPMG ‘Report on Jobs’ published in partnership with the Recruitment & Employment Confederation.

It reported the steepest rise in vacancies in 23 years but a sharp fall in the number of candidates available to fill them.

Estate agencies

“Many estate agencies are having a very successful – even record-breaking – year, with most staff busy, motivated and making good money,” he says (pictured).

“Pipelines are large and pay packets are almost guaranteed to be big – so why would they want to walk away?

“Also, the pandemic means the economic outlook is uncertain, so most employees do not want to move jobs – especially when they have been in their current job for long enough to have gained some employment protection. Why risk becoming last in, first out?”

Other reasons include that lockdown has given candidates time to readjust their priorities and some have either left the sector or made the transition into the burgeoning and lifestyle-friendly hybrid self-employed sector.

“Finally, many of our clients are currently specifying that an ideal candidate for their vacancy is someone with 12-18 months experience,” says Hesse.

“But we’ve had to point out to them that hardly anyone was recruiting into the business at entry level at this time, so such candidates simply do not exist.”