After a long, quiet winter, the spring has brought a thaw in the sales of second-hand properties in Beijing, but the spike in business has led to a labor shortage at many of the capital's housing agencies.
According to an investigation by the Mirror Evening News, major property agencies in Beijing are short of about 5,000 workers.
"Yes, we are recruiting," a manager, surnamed Wang, from a branch of the Homelink House Agency in Baliqiao, Tongzhou district, confirmed to METRO.
"Applicants can come here any time and we will keep recruiting during this period."
According to Wang, almost every agency office is looking for staff. His comments were echoed by managers at five outlets of rival agencies.
The thriving second-hand property market is only part of the cause, said Zhao Yang, a researcher from the real estate research center at Peking University.
"Recently, several 'land kings' emerged at auctions of development sites, which broke people's dreams who hoped the cost of new housing would drop significantly," he said.
"So, more people are no longer waiting for prices to come down and are choosing to buy houses," Zhao said.
"There is still strong demand from people in Beijing and the lack of information about available homes pushes them to turn to agencies.
"The other reason for the shortage is that many real estate dealers want to clear out their stock before the final government policy is implemented."
According to the Beijing Real Estate Management website, second-hand property trade fell in the three months since December 2009 but picked up sharply in the third week of March.
"The shortage of labor at the real estate agencies is quite normal but it is especially serious when the market is very good," said Zhang Dawei, a researcher from the market research department at Centaline, a leading property agent.
But Zhang said the lack of staff presents a challenge for real estate agencies because they find it hard to attract workers for the salary they are able to offer.
"Workers' salary is made up of their basic salary and a bonus. The basic salary is only 1,000 yuan," Zhang said.
So, the amount of bonus earned will be dictated by the employee's capability, Zhang said.
"If you are really good at selling houses, you can even make 10,000 yuan a month."
Zhao Yang said such an unstable career often only attracts people for a short time.
"Whenever there is a more stable job, agents tend to leave; that's why house agencies are always recruiting."
Chen Baocun, deputy secretary general of the National Real Estate Manager Alliance, agreed the relatively poor salary made it difficult to recruit workers.
"When the government policy on real estate becomes tighter, consumers will choose to wait, rather than buy a house. At that time, agents will have no business to do and they can hardly survive on a 1,000-yuan salary."
