Huttons Asia climbed to claim the Big Three Agencies

In the early 2021s, Huttons Asia had 3,211 agents. Mark Yip, CEO of the agency that is based in Hong Kong has set a goal of 4,000 agents by time the year ended. On January 3, 2022 there will be 4,155 agents employed by Huttons Asia has climbed to 4,155, according to information from Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) public register.
Huttons Asia has vaulted from fourth place to third and now is as one of the top three real estate firms according to sales force in Singapore. PropNex as well as ERA Realty Network are the two largest.

Site listed under the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme to a joint venture with Piccadilly Grand CDL & MCL.

Of the close to 1,000 agents who joined Huttons this year, approximately 700 were brought onboard after the departure of four co-founders and managing partners from Navis Living Group who crossed into Huttons to Huttons from OrangeTee & Tie last October. The remaining agents comprised mostly new recruits as well as those who joined Huttons by way of other organizations.

In mid-February, Huttons are expected to have between 4,250 and 4,300 agents , as there are some applicants who remain pending CEA approval, according to Yip. He hopes to have the sales force of 5,000 agents by 2022’s end. “I would like to strike when the iron is burning,” he remarks. “Developers are paying attention to us, and many other agencies are beginning to recognize the fact that Huttons is a formidable competitor.”

The goal is an agency sales force of 6,000. “Size matters,” he says. “But between 5,000 and 6,000 agents is the optimal size. Beyond this, inefficiency begins to take hold and cracks start to develop when a group grows too large.”

Since Yip was hired by Huttons in November of this year He has been working on making improvements to the firm’s “hardware as well as software”. The hardware was designed to improve the physical office space , and transform it into a collaboration-oriented workspace. He also wanted to invest in digitalisation and custom Huttons software for employees. In the coming year, he plans to merge three apps into one, and also to include a brand-new “Huttons analyzer”. This will increase its utility for agents, he says. “We are also pushing for a large amount in training to our agenteither via Zoom or in actual sessions.”

At some point in the late months of March or in the early part of April, Huttons will begin its brand-new property auction service, with the new team coming with an internationally-based property agency.

In the coming year Huttons celebrates its 20th birthday. For Yip it’s an important milestone since Huttons has become the largest it’s ever had in the field of salesforces, he claims. There are a lot of salespeople who have earned a million dollars in commissions this year is new record-breaking and 32 agents have surpassed the this threshold. The top performer district director of the associate group, Jeremy Lim, is said to have racked up more than three million dollars in commissions this year.

Huttons Research estimates that there were 24 private residential launches and 2 executive condominium (EC) launches in the last year. Out of these launches, twelve were located in the Core Central Region (CCR) seven were within the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and five were in the Outside Central Region (OCR). A total of 10,000 units were introduced to be sold last year.

The year ahead, Huttons is expecting a steady stream of 43 residential launches which will total 5,509 units. In terms of segmentation 1177 units (21.4%) are expected to be within the CCR and 2,059 models (37.4%) in the RCR and 2,273 ones (41.3%) in the OCR.

Two EC projects are expected to be announced in 2022, for instance, North Gaia in Yishun by Sing Holdings sometime in March or April, as well as another in Tengah Garden Walk in 4Q2022 by a joint venture with City Developments (CDL) and MCL Land. Another EC project on Tampines Street 62 will reach its 15th month in November 2022. It could launch in 1Q2023, according to Lee Sze Teck, senior director of research at Huttons Asia.

Projects expected to launch in 1Q2022 include the 107-unit, freehold strata landed development Belgravia Ace located at Belgravia Drive, off Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5; the boutique freehold development with 34 units Kovan Jewel on Kovan Road 32 unit Royal Hallmark on Haig Road; the 105-unit The Arden at Phoenix Road and the 405-unit development at Northumberland Road.

Regarding demand, Yip believes that there is an abundance for first-time purchasers. Demand for investors in both the local and international market is expected to decrease due to the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) implemented on December 16 is punishing Yip adds. However, he believes that transactions will pick up within the next three to six months.

Despite the dampening effects of recently introduced cooling steps, Yip is of the opinion that developers are still required to replenish their land bank as the number of private housing units that are not sold is projected to drop to 15,000 by 2021’s end. “Even although that the federal government has been pumping out more homes and built-to-order apartments and government land for sale sites but there will be delays in the process of construction,” he notes. “So the demand for resales of HDB flats and private resales houses will be high.”

The impact of property chilling measures in the market for collective sales is surprisingly mixed. “The bigger sites are likely to not receive bids that are in line with the expectations of sellers’ prices,” notes Yip. “But smaller sites with good location will be in high the market since numerous developers are running out of inventory.”

According to Yip according to Yip, real estate is the most effective protection against market volatility. “Investors will eventually be back in the market for residential properties. In the meantime, hot money is flowing to Singapore,” he adds.

He’s of the opinion that the Good Class Bungalow (GCB) and the luxurious bungalow segment could initially experience the sales drop. “But there are some who want to improve their homes and purchase an undeveloped home,” he adds. “The wealthy are getting more prosperous and there are plenty who have made money from the stock market that are looking to channel it into real property.”

Huttons has therefore made sure that its staff are diversifying in their skills and abilities. Beyond the new sales for new projects the company is also looking to expand Huttons market share in the residential resales as well as commercial and shophouse categories. “Realistically it is the case that there are 10% or 30% of agents that aren’t active and we must be in contact with them via dialogs, as well as other ways,” he says.