This is not a long term problem. It’s already here.
alto Data published this week It shows that only 1 in 10 new build homes completed in England will reach the open market in 2024/25.
Of the estimated 200,000 new properties built that year, only 21,261 entered the sales channel where buyers search and agents transact. The rest went into build-to-rent portfolios, developer direct sales or affordable housing allocation.
In London this figure is 2.12%. 7.51% in the North West. Even in the South West – the strongest performing region – it sits at 17%.
These are not rounding errors. They are the result of a structural reallocation of housing supply that has been building for years, and that is not being reversed. Build-to-rent portfolios are held for the long term. They don’t churn, they don’t get repeat instructions, they don’t create opportunities for repeat transactions. Once absorbed into institutional ownership, that stock leaves the competitive open market forever.
It’s a sprint, not a marathon. If you’re leaving it a few years before thinking about what it means for your business, you’re already behind.
I’d add to this: The agents who will feel it most are not the ones who can’t see the problem. They are the only ones who can see it clearly and are reacting to the wrong version of it.
misdiagnosis
When I talk to agency owners about what’s holding them back, the conversation almost always starts in the same place. They need more people. More negotiators, more property managers, more admin support. Business is running hot and there are not enough hands.
I understand that tendency. But in most cases, this is the wrong call. When you really look at how teams spend their time – and I mean really map it out, task by task, click by click – a different picture emerges.
Research shows that agents are losing about eight hours per week on tasks that can already be automated. That’s ten full work weeks per person per year, work that doesn’t require any skilled negotiators to do.
In many agencies, one-third to one-half of a typical negotiator’s week is non-revenue work. They are not winning instructions. They are keeping the operation running – chasing down solicitors, manually acquiring qualified leads, processing certificates, managing the admin behind a deal that can largely run itself.
“Most agencies think they have a hiring problem. They don’t. They have an administrative problem. And the difference matters because hiring more people in a fragmented, manual operation doesn’t fix the problem, it makes it worse.
The framing I find useful here is to think about what your business is actually being hired to do. Every agency has a set of core job functions – the tasks your team accomplishes day after day. make a list. Progress in sales. Renewal of certificate. Getting the lead. Reconciling accounts.
The question to ask is: How many of those tasks actually require people to do them? And of those that don’t, how many are taking up the space of people who should be facing customers?
This is where the real incompetence lies. Not in headcount. Your team’s time and attention is being wasted in this struggle.
What a tight market really reveals
In a strong market, operational inefficiencies are costly but avoidable. The volume covers a lot of cracks. Margins are lower than they should be, progress takes longer than necessary, but deals are still closed and the business is still growing.
A structurally tight market removes that buffer. As available stock shrinks and competition for each instruction intensifies, businesses that were hiding weak operations with high volume begin to realize it. Cracks cannot be removed with paper. They become widespread.
That’s why I think the question of how agents respond to supply changes is really a question about operational discipline. Not working harder – working smarter. Knowing which contacts in your database are most likely to be transferred before you tell someone. Responding promptly and consistently to every lead that comes in, not dependent on who picks up the phone first. Managing compliance as a system, not as a checklist that someone can forget.
None of these people need more people. This requires better infrastructure and faster access to data, which most agencies are already sitting on.
Most Agents Are Ignoring the Data Benefits
Here’s something that often gets missed. The agencies with the richest operational histories – the deepest records of applicants, vendors, landlords, transactions, results built over years – are sitting at the real competitive advantage. They are just not using it.
Every applicant who has not yet made a purchase. Each landlord’s relationship spanned a decade. Every vendor you valued three years ago is still not listed. That data, when properly activated, tells you where your next instructions are coming from before anyone else knows. The signs are there. The problem is that most agencies are too busy managing operational frictions to surface them.
The role of technology in this is not to replace the judgment of a good agent. This is to clear the way so that decisions can actually be implemented – to get rid of the admin, the paperwork, the wasted headspace, so that agents can do what they’re really there to do. The agencies that win in a tight market aren’t the biggest or loudest. They are people who have really freed up enough space to see their business clearly and work on it.
what does this moment require
I want to be honest about what I think the industry demands, because I don’t think the polite version serves anyone.
Structural changes in housing supply are not being reversed. The burden of compliance is not reducing. Consumers’ expectations are not decreasing. Waiting for a market correction as a strategy has a worthwhile cost – it’s slower than most people realize.
The agencies that will emerge strongest in this period will be those that used it deliberately. This tightened not only their belts but also their operations. Invested in understanding where their business is really coming from and where their team’s time is really going.
A tight open market doesn’t make estate agency less valuable – it makes a good agent’s skills more important, not less. But advisory value cannot sit above a delicate operation. The foundation must be right.
Those who are building those foundations now will be in a very different position in three years from those who are still waiting for things to return to the way they were.
They won’t.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson is the CEO of Alto, a CRM for property and rental agencies.