How are real estate agents adapting to the housing crisis?

Albane Leprince 12:19 p.m., February 21, 2024

Record years, then the collapse! 2023 marked a break for real estate agents, hit hard by the crisis and the fall in sales caused by rising interest rates and sellers reluctant to lower their prices. This is what reveals the latest real estate agent morale barometer published by Opinion System. As a result, 887 agencies were placed in liquidation or receivership. 

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More than half of agents anticipate an unblocking of the market within 12 months

Since May 2023, agent morale has deteriorated significantly and anxiety is gaining ground. 73% of real estate professionals say they are worried about price stability, 75% about the state of mind of sellers and 72% about that of buyers. However, 52% of real estate agents anticipate an unblocking of the market within twelve months, so they remain relatively optimistic. 

On the other hand, sellers still refuse to revise their prices downwards, 86% of them maintain their sale price, often much higher than that communicated by the real estate agent, so that more than nine out of ten to declare that they have difficulty identifying potential buyers for the properties in their portfolio, especially since the latter pay more attention to the DPE of the properties put up for sale. Nearly one in four buyers use it as a negotiation lever, however, only 27% of agents believe that buyers are ready to rule out a property that presents a poor diagnosis.