Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on number of people working as real estate agents or salespersons and the breakdown in terms of full-time employment, part-time employment, educational qualification, age, gender and nationality

Apr 5, 2021


Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: To ask the Minister for National Development for each of the years from 2010 to 2020 (a) how many people in the labour force are working as real estate agents or salespersons; and (b) what is the breakdown for such persons in terms of full-time employment, part-time employment, educational qualification, age, gender and nationality. 

Answer:

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) was set up in Oct 2010 to regulate the real estate agency industry. The annual number of real estate salespersons (RESs) since CEA’s formation is as follows:

Table 1: Number of RESs from 2011 – 2021#

Year

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Number of RES

28,766

30,577

31,040

31,783

30,830


Year

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Number of RES

29,262

28,397

28,571

29,146

30,073

30,399


# All figures are as at 1 Jan of the respective years except for 2011 where the figure was published on 9 Jan 2011 due to the transition to the then new regulatory regime when CEA was set up in Oct 2010.

Based on available records, the breakdown of the RES population in terms of age, gender, nationality and education for the past five years is as follows:

Table 2: Breakdown of RES population by age* 

Age

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

29 and below

2%

4%

4%

5%

3%

30 to 39

20%

23%

22%

22%

19%

40 to 49

34%

34%

34%

33%

33%

50 to 59

27%

26%

26%

25%

27%

60 to 69

14%

12%

13%

12%

15%

Above 70

3%

2%

2%

2%

3%


Table 3: Breakdown of RES population by gender* 

Gender

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Female

48%

48%

48%

48%

48%

Male

52%

52%

52%

52%

52%

Table 4: Breakdown of RES population by nationality*

Nationality

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Singapore Citizens

91.0%

91.3%

91.6%

92.0%

92.2%

Permanent Residents

8.9%

8.6%

8.3%

8.0%

7.7%

Foreigners

0.1%

0.1%

0.1%

0.1%

0.1%


Table 5: Breakdown of RES population by educational qualification* 

Education qualification

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Below Secondary

3%

2%

2%

2%

2%

Secondary

25%

24%

23%

23%

22%

Post-Secondary (Non-Tertiary)

10%

10%

10%

10%

10%

Diploma

27%

27%

27%

27%

27%

Degree

36%

37%

38%

39%

40%


*Figures as at 1 Jan of the respective years and may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Based on a survey conducted by CEA in end 2020, 59% of RESs indicated that they are working full-time as a RES, while the other 41% indicated that they are working part-time.