Real estate brokerage profession is "hot" again

In the context of a more positive real estate market, many investors and trading floors are paying attractive salaries and bonuses to "attract" brokerage staff.

Race to "recruit"

At the beginning of 2024, the real estate industry was surprised by the news that Vinhomes was building a direct retail business for customers. Currently, this enterprise is trying to recruit thousands of sales staff with a generous compensation policy. However, the sales targets set by this unit are not easy.

Accordingly, Vinhomes is willing to pay a fixed salary of about 10 million VND/month, right during the internship period. After being officially accepted, the company will set a business target. If at least 1 apartment is not sold in 2 consecutive months, the employee will be fired. On the other hand, for each successful transaction, the broker will receive an additional commission equivalent to about 2% of the value of the product sold.

Many investors such as Masterise Homes, Gamuda Land, Hung Thinh, Novaland , Thang Loi Group, Khai Hoan Land, CenLand… are also implementing new recruitment campaigns. Many places are willing to pay a basic salary of up to 20 million VND/month to attract good employees. Commission payments or bonuses are committed to be paid in a short time, only within 24 - 48 hours after the transaction is signed.

Some projects have increased the sales bonus for brokers. For example, at Vinhomes Grand Park Project (HCMC), the investor increased the bonus from VND5 million to VND10 million/transaction. At The Rivana Project ( Binh Duong ), sales staff will be rewarded VND25 million in cash, along with 2 gold bars and a resort voucher.

At The Emerald 68 Project (Binh Duong), brokers are also supported with marketing costs along with a bonus of 10 - 20 million VND for each transaction. With Meyhomes Phu Quoc, the bonus can be up to 100 million VND for a 3-bedroom apartment transaction.

Speaking to Dau Tu Newspaper, Mr. Tran Vu, founder of the research unit SPE.R, said that businesses are recruiting massively to prepare for the "turning of the page" of the market. Currently, loan interest rates have dropped to the lowest level in history, revised laws related to real estate have also been passed, and legal problems are gradually being resolved. This is a guarantee for the market's recovery.

“Normally, to carry out a large sales campaign, units need about 4-12 months of preparation time. Therefore, it is reasonable for investors and brokerage floors to look for more staff at the present time,” said Mr. Tran Vu.

Not an easy job

Real estate brokerage is not a “money-making” profession as many people think. Ms. Xuan Giang, a real estate sales person, said that the income of real estate brokers mainly comes from commissions. Therefore, when the market is down, there are people who work without pay for half a year.

“On average, when selling a medium-sized apartment, a broker will earn about 70 - 80 million VND. It sounds big, but after deducting advertising costs and dividing profits among group members, the remaining amount is not worth much,” Ms. Giang shared.

According to Ms. Giang, many friends in the brokerage industry are operating as individuals in the secondary market. They are not too keen on joining companies because they already have their own customer base and know the goods sources in the area. Without good compensation policies and quality projects, businesses will have a hard time attracting experienced personnel.

From another perspective, Mr. Tran Vu commented that recruiting brokers is also a "move" to serve the marketing plan of the enterprise. Each sales staff is a channel to promote the product, regardless of whether that person can sell the product or not. On average, in companies, only about 20% of the staff are able to close a successful transaction. The rest will play a background role in the project's marketing campaign.

“Brokers usually receive quite low salaries. If they meet their sales targets, their salary ranges from 4 to 6 million VND/month. In case they do not sell any products, brokers will only receive 50% of their salary. After 2 months without any transactions, they will not even receive their salary. Due to the nature of the job, the elimination rate in the industry is very high. Companies always have to recruit staff to ensure resources to operate sales campaigns,” said Mr. Vu.

According to the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), as of early December 2023, the market had only nearly 100,000 people working in the brokerage sector, down 70% compared to the peak period. However, this decrease is not worrying, because the number of employees leaving is mostly "amateur" brokers, without a practice certificate and only entering the market at a "hot" time.

Source