For the best part of a decade, our industry has focused on winning instructions and keeping sellers happy. The next few years, however, may well belong to those agents who are best at looking after buyers.

Looking at the data for May, Zoopla reported that buyer demand is down 10% year-on-year, while Rightmove says buyer choice is at its highest point since 2015.

Which means that buyers are negotiating harder, offering less and, if they don’t get the answer they want, are prepared to move on to the next property.

For much of the last decade, stock was the scarce commodity. Today, it’s the committed buyers who are.

Yet our industry is still largely geared around sellers. Buyers are often treated as portal leads, emails and viewing appointments rather than what they have become in many markets: the scarcest commodity in the transaction.

For years, agents have focused on winning instructions because sellers pay the fee. But an instruction without a buyer quickly becomes a price reduction.

The agents who prosper won’t be the ones waiting for Rightmove enquiries to arrive. They’ll be the ones speaking to buyers every day, understanding exactly what they’re looking for, what they’ll compromise on and what they’re prepared to pay. If that means knocking on doors or sending letters because you’ve got a buyer waiting, then that’s what good agency looks like.

I also think we’re about to discover the limits of AI. It can tell you what’s happened in your market. It can’t tell you which buyer will stretch another £20,000, which seller will become realistic next month or which homeowner might move because you’ve got the perfect applicant waiting. That’s where experience, relationships and local market knowledge still matter.

The other change we need to make is around information. Buyers are becoming more cautious and more price-sensitive. The industry should stop waiting for government intervention and start embracing pre-pack information now. The more legal information, survey information and repair costs we can put in front of buyers upfront, the more confidence they’ll have to proceed.

My dad always likened estate agency to supermarkets. The supermarket with the biggest range attracts the most customers. The same applies today. The agent with the most choice for buyers will increasingly be the agent that wins.

This is the biggest market reset we’ve seen for years. Not because transactions will stop, but because the balance of power has shifted.

For a decade, the agent with the instructions won.

The next few years may belong to the agent with the buyers.