Greater Consolidation in the Real Estate Industry
PropNex announced its $5million growth package to elevate professionalism of real estate salespersons

Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) conducts its yearly salesperson registration renewal exercise for year 2018 from 1 to 31 October 2017. During this period, salespersons have to fulfil necessary renewal requirements like paying their $230 renewal fees, completing their CPD requirements and clearing their Medisave liabilities before they can be granted with the license to operate as a real estate salesperson for the following year. It is also within this period that many real estate agencies step up on their recruitment initiatives, offering incentives to attract new entrants and experienced real estate salespersons into their agency.

Real estate agencies consolidating to remain competitive
Chief executive officer of PropNex, Mr Ismail Gafoor commented, “Unlike previous years, we are witnessing a change in the real estate industry scene in 2017. Many small to mid-sized firms might choose not to continue operating on their own and will instead consolidate their business with the bigger players.”
On 12 June 2017, PropNex Realty sparked this trend of consolidation between agencies through its merger with another home grown agency, Dennis Wee Group (DWG). 88 per cent of active DWG successfully crossed over to PropNex on 10 July 2017. Today, PropNex is Singapore’s largest real estate agency with 6,743 salespersons (as of 27 Aug, CEA website Public Registry)

Mr Ismail added, “I believe that at best, the market today can only afford to have four bigger agencies operating successfully. Over time, only two agencies will eventually dominate the industry.”

Over $10million invested since 2013 to elevate salespersons’ service standards and professionalism
As a strong believer of continuously raising the professionalism of salespersons, PropNex has invested more than $10million in the last five years to provide an extensive range of trainings and development programmes for salespersons to raise their knowledge, skills and service standards in the industry. With the positive response and active participation in these initiatives, the agency witnessed its production increased by more than 50 per cent in the last year, with increasing number of salespersons achieving higher income and productivity.

Now with the age of digital disruption coupled with increasing trend of consolidations between real estate agencies, it is more important than ever to continuously develop the skills of real estate salespersons to achieve high standards of professionalism and be relevant in the real estate industry.
With this in mind, PropNex announced its $5million Training and Development Roadmap for all existing and incoming experienced salespersons which comes in three stages, Discover, Growth and Excel. These programmes which are designed to sharpen the skills of an aspiring or experienced real estate salespersons, will be conducted over the period of 30 days.

Discovery stage is for those who want to embark on real estate career, given exposure through free Market direction and zonal trainings, projects’ bus tours, informative PropNex conventions and many other programmes that gives them an idea of what to expect before joining the real estate industry. There are no conditions for these individuals to join PropNex after attending these programmes – as it is solely for their benefit.

Under the Growth and Excel stage, salespersons will be introduced to SPEAR – Successful PropNex Experienced Agents Roadmap which includes the agency’s signature trainings like: Zonal trainings, Market Direction, Power Presentation & Closing Mastery (PSCM), Power Project Presentation Course (PPPC), Accelerated Closing Techniques (ACT), Leadership bootcamp and much more.

Moulding the next generation of salespersons for the industry
What is interesting about this initiative is the fact that individuals who attend the programmes at any stage, will not be obligated in any way to join PropNex or remain in the agency.

Mr Lim Yong Hock, Key Executive Officer of PropNex shared the reason for this, “PropNex’s primary focus has always been about adding value to both our salespersons and clients and not just about adding numbers to our agency. We want both new and experienced salespersons to take this opportunity to upgrade themselves and sharpen their skills to remain relevant in the industry. We truly believe that by increasing the skill sets and professionalism of our salespersons, we are making a positive contribution in the real estate industry for the benefits of home buyers and investors in Singapore as well.”

Through the various schemes, initiatives and trainings that the agency offers, PropNex is expecting at least 500 new and experienced salespersons to come on board the agency in 2018.