Levels of self-employment in the property sector have remained largely static across the last five years while the number of fully employed property professionals has risen 17%, GetAgent analysis has revealed.

The comparison site’s study of figures from the Office for National Statistics found there are currently 331,688 property professionals within the fully employed UK real estate sector. Meanwhile, there are 65,901 self-employed real estate workers – accounting for just 17% of the total industry figure.

The self-employed proportion for 2022 represents a small rise on the previous year’s 16%, but is down on the 19% peak seen in 2017, 2019 and 2020.

The actual number of property professionals operating within the UK market has dropped on both fronts over the last year. So far in 2022, the number of self-employed property professionals is down by 1% on 2021, while the decline is 3.7% across the fully employed sector. However, in 2021, the level of self-employed workers fell by 11.7% year-on-year, versus a 7.9% increase for the fully employed.

Analysis of the the current and pre-pandemic markets shows a similar trend, with the number of those working within the fully employed sector up by 7% versus a 10.3% decline across the self-employed space since 2019.

Against the 17% increase in fully employed workers over the last five years, the number of self-employed property professionals has increased by just 0.05%.

“The UK property sector offers an abundance of employment opportunities whether you opt to go it alone or to work within the traditional structure of employment, but it’s clear that those on the frontline have opted for the greater security of the latter during what has been a very tough pandemic period,” commented Mal McCallion, CEO of GetAgent.

“Although this data covers a myriad of roles within property, it’s also fair to say that the declining trend of self-employed workers is particularly apparent within estate agency.

“Online agents have struggled to grow their human element, while at the same time, the Americanised model of self-employed estate agency is yet to really take off – so it’s hardly surprising that the majority of agents remain within the tried and tested format of the traditional sector,” McCallion added.