Real estate job ads take a hit in market downturn

Buyers and sellers aren’t the only people hurting in a slower housing market, as new data shows there are fewer real estate agent jobs up for grabs.

New advertisements for the sector were down 6 per cent nationally between July and September compared with this time last year, according to jobs website Seek.

Some states and territories fared better than others.

New job advertisements for real estate increased 5 per cent in South Australia, 4 per cent in the ACT and 3 per cent in Tasmania.

Economist Stephen Koukoulas said job advertisements closely correlated with each state and territories’ corresponding housing market and economy.

“When there’s a booming market, there’s more turnover and so you need more people to deal with the volume of homes being transacted,” Koukoulas said.

“Tassie in particular is doing very well after their economy being in the doldrum for many years.

“It’s got a bit of a catch-up, I suppose, and people are going down there to live. People are selling up their houses in the expensive states and buying cheaply in Tassie.

“ACT is also doing very well at the minute. There’s strong population growth and lots of infrastructure spending. I think it’s as simple as that.”

It’s a different story on the eastern seaboard. 

Job advertisements in real estate in Victoria were down 2 per cent and fell by 7 per cent in NSW. Queensland had the biggest fall of 15 per cent year on year.

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Malcolm Gunning said this was the inevitable effect of a softening housing market.

“Sydney and Melbourne are suffering from coming off a historically high housing boom, which has had a strong demand for real estate jobs,” Gunning said.

“There’s less turnover of stock, which means there’s probably more agents than required to transact and maintain homes, so you’ll lose sales staff and marketing money, too.”

Gunning also attributed the decline in job ads to the ease of entry into the industry.

“Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne has the lowest levels of entry to real estate … [there’s] not a high investment in education … so you see them move into other areas in a downturn,” he said.

“That’s the problem with the industry in the east coast. We’ve argued to lift the standards so you don’t get transient people who are opportunists that come through the industry.”

He believed SA had more advertisements for real estate jobs to cater for interstate migration borne out of people chasing cheaper accommodation.

Koukoulas said the downturn had some way to go before prices stabilised.

He said the downturn in NSW was evident in the government’s falling stamp duty revenue.

The Northern Territory had a 9 per cent drop in real estate agent job advertisements and Western Australia was down 4 per cent.