Can sales commissions of agents be squeezed to benefit consumers?

SELLING properties on behalf of customers can yield rich returns for the middleman. For 2022, Singapore’s largest real estate agency PropNex posted revenue of S$1.03 billion and net profit of S$62.4 million, up 7.5 per cent and 3.9 per cent year on year respectively. 

Singapore Exchange-listed PropNex’s return on equity (ROE) of nearly 50 per cent far exceeds the mid-single digit ROE of many developers. At end-2022, the group had S$139 million of cash and cash equivalents, as well as no borrowings.

A property agency need not incur large capital expenditure to build homes, but cashes in by taking a slice of revenue from sales and leasing transactions.