The rise of the portfolio career: Why and when estates agents are moving jobs

​Historically, Estate Agents and sales professionals tend to have a higher staff turnover than other professional specialisms like finance and marketing. A more attractive commission structure, company culture and employee benefit packages seem to always be on offer. The grass is always greener...

As estate agency recruiters, we wanted to put some data behind how loyal estate agents really are. Why? To give agents in the current market an overview of where they sit, as well as provide employers tips on how to gain better employee retention.

We surveyed over 350 estate agents throughout March 2023 asking: How long have you been with your current employer?

60% of participants answered 0-3 years, which was followed by 23% of recipients answering 5+ years and just 17% answering 3-5 years. Those who answered in the 0-3 years band tended to be mainly trainees, but also consisted of a real mixture of levels including negotiators as well as up to director level.

We believe those who were at director level were likely to be a professional who had transitioned into this position from another employer as an opportunity to further progress their career. Often, we speak to jobseekers and their reason for moving is because they are unable to progress at the pace they’d like to within their own company and competing businesses will offer prospective candidates a promotion as a way to attract talent.

Participants who answered 5+ years were mainly senior staff such as managers and directors. This comes as no surprise, the longer you stay with a business the more likely you are to progress into a senior member of staff. Agencies are likely to lose staff if they don’t offer any form of progression throughout the 5 years of employment!

Ryan Doyle, Head of Estate Agency commented: “We've noticed that if negotiators are able to get through their initial training and on boarding process, the next gateway of risk seems to be around 18 months... if they get beyond that, through to circa 2.5-3 years... then people tend to stay beyond the 5-year mark.

From the data we've received, the people who stayed beyond 5 years with their employer, were individuals who were offered 2 or 3 steps of progression across that same time frame. With very few employees staying for 5 years plus having seen zero progression in terms of job title and ownership of role.”

If you’re looking to progress in your career, or if you’re a business seeking to improve retention, you can learn from our latest article on how to rise through the ranks of real estate here.