Estate Agency & Property
Estate agents act as intermediaries between their clients – who are looking to sell or let their properties – and the people looking for properties to buy or rent. Usually, estate agents specialise in one specific market – either sales or lettings.
Jobs in estate agency
The majority of estate agents normally work in the residential property market, dealing with houses, apartments, flats, bungalows, penthouses, land for residential use and even eco-houses.
One of the major advantages of a career as an estate agent is that they are usually rewarded on a commission basis: for every deal an estate agent does, they receive a bonus on top of their regular salary. This is a constant form of motivation, which prevents complacency and encourages improvement.
Alternatively a commercial estate agent works with properties used for business purposes, such as office buildings, shops, factories, hotels, warehouses and land for commercial or industrial use. Some estate agents move into the property management department of agencies and help out current tenants with problems that they are having with their properties. This means that landlords don’t have to deal with such issues themselves.
Jobs in property
A property manager in the residential market usually prepares agreements for tenants, negotiates contract renewals, manages rental properties, prepares inventories, and daily correspondence, arranges for gas, water and electrical checks, and keeps owners up to date with information on their property.
On the other side of the industry is property development, which incorporates a range of careers, from people who subdivide land to those who get into the business of renovating and knocking down buildings, before rebuilding them and selling them on.
Property developers negotiate land prices and construction costs, so those wanting to pursue this career need to have strong commercial acumen and an eye for good deals. A lot of property developers make their money from studying the property market and capitalising on any opportunities that arise. Research is absolutely key, so they have to spend a lot of your time studying the market, visiting various locations around the UK and discussing valuations with surveyors and architects.
There are also many other roles in property: you could work for a local council, helping regenerate neighbourhoods or maintaining properties.
Estate agency & property apprenticeships
School leavers wanting to work in this sector could do an Intermediate Apprenticeship (Level 2) after taking their GCSEs, and train in roles like estate agent administrator and lettings administrator.
They could then do an Advanced Apprenticeship (Level 3) in roles such as estate agent and letting agent. School leavers with A-levels could also access these schemes.
School leavers could also look at the estate agency and property courses on offer at further education college.
