From an income of 90 million VND/month, real estate sales now only receive news of salary cut

"Huge" Tet bonus time

One morning, HL (27 years old, from Binh Dinh), a real estate broker (sales), and his colleagues were called to an urgent meeting room. The atmosphere of the meeting was tense.

Without beating around the bush, the company's HR Director announced that the company's leadership had agreed to cut 80% of its staff, retaining only key positions to maintain operations and business management while waiting for the difficult period to pass.

Once having "huge" income, real estate brokers now have to face job cuts, salary cuts, and bonus cuts (Illustration: Tran Khang).

"Hearing this, my ears started ringing. I was shocked and couldn't believe what I just heard. 80% means 200 employees of the company lost their jobs and were reduced to unpaid collaborators, including me," L. said bitterly.

Previously, L. worked for 2 years at a real estate company in his hometown. The company paid L. a fixed salary of 6.5 million VND/month, with a separate commission for each successful transaction. On average, L. earned more than 20 million VND/month, with a peak period of up to 90 million VND/month.

In addition, he also receives a bonus of several tens of millions of dong every Tet holiday. It can be said that this job brings L. a comfortable life, just like the previous name "money-making job".

But after more than a year of "frozen" real estate market, brokers like L. have fallen into a difficult situation. Company revenue has decreased, customers who regularly contacted them have disappeared.

Finally, because they could not hold on any longer, the company had to cut staff. L., a good employee, became an unpaid collaborator, with income reduced by 70-80% and of course no Tet bonus.

HL shared that to "get through" this period of time, he had to take on another job to cover living expenses. As for his "dream" job, L. is still waiting, hoping for a chance to return to his golden age.

Some people give up, some people try to "hold on"

Mr. Minh Nhat, a manager at a real estate company in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the business situation in the first 6 months of 2023, the market encountered many difficulties and stagnation.

Transaction volume has dropped sharply, some companies without capital have had to temporarily close or accept bankruptcy. Many real estate employees have had their salaries, commissions delayed and bonuses cut.

Many real estate agents accept to stick with the profession, holding out through difficult times (Illustration: LT).

"Towards the end of the year, the market tends to be more positive, the transaction volume gradually stabilizes but the number is still insignificant," said Mr. Nhat.

Faced with the difficult situation, the male manager said that not only employees but also managers like him were affected.

"My income has decreased by 20-25%, and my sales staff's income has decreased by more than half. At this stage, most companies have proposed plans to cut staff, like my company just laid off 20% of its employees," said Mr. Nhat.

In previous years, real estate sales at Mr. Nhat's company would receive a Tet bonus of 200 million VND if they met their targets. Now, this number is expected to be halved, maybe more.

"I have been working here since 2018. Given this situation, we will try our best to accompany the company through this difficult period," the manager confided.

Many real estate employees have to change careers (Illustration: Nhaphonet.vn).

However, not every real estate agent chooses to stay.

In early 2023, right after selling a house worth 12 billion VND, T. immediately quit his job because he realized that the deeper he stuck to the real estate brokerage profession, the more difficult it would be. At that time, Mr. TT had the opportunity to work at a reputable real estate company in Ho Chi Minh City. T. showed himself to be a promising employee when he closed many valuable contracts.

Working with a fixed salary of 5.4 million VND, his income mostly depends on other benefits such as commissions, project bonuses, etc. Despite the low salary, T. has an income many times higher than his peers. However, when the real estate market fell into difficulty, T. soon realized the challenges in the profession and proactively quit his job.

"I chose this job with the expectation of a high income, meeting rich people to learn their business methods. I had high expectations for this field, but when the profession fell into a difficult situation, I accepted to leave to avoid risks. I myself also had to have a stable salary to cover my living expenses, staying and waiting for real estate to recover was quite risky," said Mr. T.

According to a survey by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), in the first 9 months of 2023, the number of new transactions was only about 50% compared to the same period last year and about 20% compared to the "land fever" period. Some businesses with less than 100 employees even had a revenue decrease of up to 70% - 80%.

Every month, about 107 real estate businesses stop operating and leave the market. As for trading floors, 20% of floors continue to face the risk of dissolution and bankruptcy; 40% of floors are struggling to survive, operating with only a few core staff, trying to hold on, "living on the belief" that the market will recover by the end of 2023.

Real estate businesses that are still operating must also reduce the scale of investment in production and business, streamline the apparatus and workforce. Over 95% of businesses must reduce the size of their workforce and up to 50% of real estate service businesses must reduce their workforce by over 20% compared to the second quarter of 2022.

Some businesses with less than 50 employees even terminated contracts with more than 90% of employees, almost stopped business operations, only retained key management positions or stopped signing temporary contracts for 3-6 months, laid off or switched to unpaid status - collaborators, cut salaries depending on rank,...

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