The overall number of self-employed UK property professionals has barely changed in the last five years while the number of those working on a fully employed basis has climbed by 17%, analysis of the estate agency sector by GetAgent.co.uk has revealed.

In 2022 to date, there are an average of 331,688 property professionals within the fully employed UK real estate sector. In contrast, there are just 65,901 who class themselves as self-employed, equating to just 17% of total real estate employees across the UK property market.

PEAK

While the proportion of property professionals working as self-employed has crept up from 16% in 2021, it remains some way off the peak of 19% seen in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

This trend is also apparent when analysing the figures based on the current and pre-pandemic market, with the number of those working within the fully employed sector up by 7% versus a -10.3% decline across the self-employed space since 2019

Mal McCallion, GetAgent.co.uk Chief Operating Officer, says: “The UK property sector offers an abundance of employment opportunities whether you opt to go it alone or to work within the traditional structure of employment, but it’s clear that those on the front line have opted for the greater security of the latter during what has been a very tough pandemic period.

Online agents have struggled to grow their human element.”

“Online agents have struggled to grow their human element, while at the same time, the Americanised model of self-employed estate agency is yet to really take off. It’s hardly surprising that the majority of agents remain within the tried and tested format of the traditional sector.”

PANDEMIC

While the pandemic had a big influence on how estate agents choose to apply their trade McCallion reckons that there’s a strong chance the declining number of self-employed property professionals will have been influenced by the legal action taken against Purplebricks.

He adds: “Perhaps the most worrying trend revealed by this data is a decline in the number of property professionals across the board, at a time when they are sorely needed to keep the market moving in what promises to be a difficult few months, if not longer.”