A new analysis of UK estate agency by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, has revealed that the proportion of UK property professionals operating with the self-employed spectrum has barely changed in the last five years, while the number of those working within the fully employed sector has climbed by 17%.
GetAgent analysed ONS Labour Force Survey data looking at employment figures within the real estate sector, splitting the workforce by those who are employed versus those who are self-employed and how the average annual number of each has changed.
The research shows that 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.
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.
On an annual basis, the level of property professionals operating within the UK market has dropped on both fronts. So far in 2022, the average number of self-employed property professionals is down by -1% on 2021, while this decline sits at -3.7% across the fully employed sector.
However, in 2021, the level of self-employed workers fell by -11.7% year on year versus a 7.9% increase across the fully employed sector.
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.
When looking at each sector’s growth over the last five years, the level of employees within the fully employed sector has increased by a notable 17%, while the number of self-employed property professionals has increased by just 0.05%.
Mal McCallion, COO of GetAgent.co.uk, commented: “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.
"Although this data covers a myriad of roles within property, it’s also fair to say that the declining trend of self-employed workers is particularly apparent within estate agency.
"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. So it’s hardly surprising that the majority of agents remain within the tried and tested format of the traditional sector.
"While the pandemic has most certainly had a big influence on how estate agents choose to apply their trade, there’s also a strong chance that the declining number of self-employed property professionals will have been heavily influenced by the legal action taken against Purplebricks.
"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.”
