Licensee statistics as at 31st March, 2003:

The Licensee Population and the Ratio between Salespersons and Estate Agents

There was a slight increase in the total number of licensees compared to the figure at end March 2002. However, there was a drop of some 20% in the number of estate agents. This change may be attributed to many factors, including practitioners who changed their estate agent licences to salesperson licences as they gradually realised the extensive range of work that could be performed by salespersons, and the daily availability of opportunities to sit the computer-based salesperson qualifying examination for those who wished to launch their careers in the trade. New entrants are now more inclined towards applying for the salesperson licence in the first instance and will seek the estate agent licence as they progress in their careers to take up management duties. The ratio between salespersons and estate agents in March 2003 stood at 1 to 1.45, in contrast to the peak of 1 to 6.1 in January 2000.

Age Distribution

As at March 2003, the overall average age of individual licensees was 37.4 years. Among the salespersons the majority (74.5%) were within the 21 to 40 range while 75.6% of the estate agents were within the 31 to 50 range.

Educational Attainment

Over 60% of the individual licensees had an education at Form 5 standard. There were 20.4% of all individual licensees who had an education above Form 5 standard.

Experience in Estate Agency Work

Among all the individual licensees, 39% had experience in the trade ranging from 1 to 5 years while another 28% had 6 to 10 years of experience.

Size of Operation

Most of the business establishments in the estate agency industry are medium to small entities. In March 2003, 94% of the company licensees were single-shop operations, and there were only 16 companies which operated five or more shops.