Supercharged housing market sees boom in real estate salespeople

Hundreds of people have signed on to sell houses since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

A booming housing market has also seen a boom in the number of real estate salespeople.

In the second half of 2020, the number of new licenses handed out to agents from the Real Estate Authority was up a whopping 45 per cent compared to the same time in 2019.

Agents say that’s partly brought on by the supercharged housing market and partly due to people being forced to change careers because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harcourts agent Kathryn Anne went from being a stay-at-home mum to selling houses and loves it – but warns it’s not always easy.

“It’s definitely a lot harder than people think,” she told 1 NEWS.

At the end of February, there were 15,711 active license holders compared with 15,367 in February 2020.

Fourty-four per cent of agents are in Auckland.

Peter Thompson has been in the industry for 40 years and says there’s been lots of changes in that time – but one thing hasn’t changed.

“People think it's an easy industry to get into and it's an easy way to make money," Thompson said. "Can I just assure you have to work hard to earn your money."

He says there’s always peaks and troughs in real estate and during the good times, it’s common to see an increase in people joining the industry.

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