Real estate industry outsourcing trends in 2019

If you’re in the Real Estate sector, then you understand the current operating environment. You also likely have an idea about the forecasted challenges ahead for Real Estate agencies.

Downturns may well be a normal part of the long term property cycle, but the Royal Commission into the banking and finance sectors is creating an element of uncertainty for the Real Estate industry, as banks tighten up on their lending.

As part of Beepo’s commitment to challenging the status quo and addressing key commercial concerns in the Real Estate sector, we have compiled a report on the current state of play for the industry as well as how Real Estate agencies are innovating through outsourcing to help survive in tough economic times.

The key trends

The report highlighted three key findings that are critical to successfully navigating 2019 and what strategies can be used to counteract these to set high performing Real Estate agencies apart from the rest:

• House prices predicted to dip by 12 - 15% over the next 2 - 4 years, with auction clearance rates dropping to approximately 50%.
  Real Estate agencies are going to need to significantly increase efficiencies and reduce overheads to counterbalance the market downturn.

• Real Estate job growth has declined by 10 - 24% across Australia in 2018, with the biggest declines seen in Queensland and Western Australia. Symptomatic of an industry downturn, agencies are needing to do more with less.

• Approximately 50% of Real Estate agencies view outsourcing as an opportunity, while the other half consider it to be a challenge or are unsure about the benefits. This means that 50% of the competition are already a step ahead of the rest!

The future of real estate outsourcing

Did you know that experts predict the Philippines outsourcing industry to grow to $55 Billion by 2020? The industry is strong and growth continues.

The Philippines is the preferred outsourcing location for thousands of businesses across Australia, namely due to excellent English proficiency, a huge number of university graduates each year, and a timezone the same as Perth, Western Australia.

Outsourcing offshore often initially comes on the radar as a way for Real Estate agencies to cut cost of labour to as low as 25%. However, our research shows that smart agencies also leverage offshore staff to:

• Increase efficiencies
  Example: When it comes to processing tenancy applications, time spent on each application can reduce from 1 hour down to just 3 - 7 minutes.

• Reduce the admin load of local staff
  Job satisfaction for the local team increases, as their time is freed up to work on higher-value tasks and initiatives. Beepo research has also shown that productivity can be 20% higher across the board.

• Decrease staff onboarding and training time.
  With improved processes and systems, hours spent onboarding and training are reduced over time.

What are you doing to prepare?

The softening market is unavoidable and you need to remain competitive and profitable, so what should you be doing next?

With half of your competitors already reaping the benefits of outsourcing offshore, it makes good business sense to start investigating the options available to your business.

Get in touch with our team for a free business consultation. We can chat with you about your current operations and discuss an outsourcing strategy into 2019 and beyond.

To read the complete 2019 Real Estate Trend Report, please download a copy here.