In a sign that price expectations of home sellers are above the market, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) says hundreds of real estate sales staff are leaving the property sales industry as the property market slows across the state.
This ahs also reflected on the Mortgage industry in homes sales transactions, but has a lesser effect in the mortgage industry due to te fact that mortgage lenders can help people with refinancing existing loans when property transactions fall.
The REIQ says this year's sales are down by between 20 and 50 per cent in parts of Queensland and that has led to at least a 25 per cent drop in the number of staff.
It says many of those who have walked away could not cope with the current conditions or the loss of income.
REIQ chairman Peter McGrath says a lot of those who have left have only had experience during a property boom.
"A lot of them haven't got the income they had this time last year and secondly, they find doing the hard work in some cases just too hard for them," he said.
"We were overstaffed to a degree to service the very hectic demands of particularly this time last year, but a lot of those people will come back into the industry.
"This time last year, we were on the most extreme high of turnover that this state has ever seen, so we are feeling the drop.
"We are back to sales levels of 2002/03, which were still reasonable years I must point out, but compared to 2007 they looked very lean years."
