Member Article

Estate Agents of the Future report considers residential property industry in 2025

A survey of 100 senior estate agency figures, commissioned by Landmark Estate Agency Services, has found that a majority believe the current customer onboarding process is ripe for change: 68% said that the current engagement process is too time-consuming, while 58% believe it is prone to human error and 56% said it is cumbersome.

The findings, which are compiled in an** Estate Agents of the Future report**, look back at what lessons the pandemic has taught estate agents, as well as consider where improvements could be made, what is the appetite for technology adoption and what the estate agent of the future might look like.

More than half of estate agents interviewed (56%) said they had a difficult financial year as a result of the pandemic, staffing issues have been a challenge for 61%, while 49% say there has been a lack of PropTech investment at their firm during the pandemic.

The value of technology has however shone through, with more than three quarters (78%) saying that working from home has made them “appreciate the importance of software” in their role and the wider industry.

The report then closely examines the future of the estate agency profession in the near to mid-term and asks agents about their concerns for the coming year, as well as looking further out to 2025. For example, 85% of estate agents believe that it is likely that administrative tasks will be automated within the next four years, suggesting agents can instead concentrate on more revenue-generating activities.

Ben Robinson, Managing Director of Landmark Estate Agency Services said “To capture the current sentiment in the estate agency industry, we commissioned an independent market research project, which interviewed 100 senior estate agents and three key areas of management concern really came through: people, proptech and processes.

“The last 18-months have really been a challenging time, what with managing resource amidst difficult conditions such as furlough, maintaining compliance and all while working through significant peaks. I believe this has sharpened agents’ focus on where real improvements can now be made – within the onboarding process an increased use of automation to replace many manual tasks - such as ownership and AML checks – come out as particularly strong themes.

“What is apparent throughout our research survey is a desire to improve the way we buy and sell houses and we believe we’ll see real change over the next two years, with the pandemic actually being a catalyst for change.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Landmark Information Group .