Agents across the UK are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to combat a skills shortage in the industry, according to analysis by Reapit.
This comes as the number of payrolled people working in real estate is growing at its slowest pace since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s inaugural Property Outlook Report 2025 revealed that most agencies that are hiring are struggling to recruit.
More than half of the agencies hiring were receiving fewer than five qualified applicants per vacancy, despite the highest unemployment rate since May 2021.
This slowdown comes amid rising employer costs in the face of higher National Insurance contributions and the upcoming Employment Rights Bill, which restricts zero-hour contracts while giving employees extra protection from dismissal and redundancy.
In short, agencies are still hiring but not finding enough applicants despite rising unemployment and employment costs, resulting in the slowest growth of employment in real estate in years.
According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of UK payrolled real estate employees grew by just 1% between July 2024 and July 2025.
This was the weakest year-on-year increase since May 2021, when payrolled employee growth stood at 0.9% amid the global pandemic.
At the same time, agencies are facing a growing skills shortage and increasingly turning to PropTech, automation and AI to improve efficiency.
Reapit’s report showed that more than 50% of those surveyed reported increased use of time-saving technology, while nearly 80% believed that it is cheaper to invest in automation than to increase headcount.
A further 69% said it is also more productive.
The company points out that, while these technologies can fill a skills gap, the real benefit of technology efficiencies is not to replace humans but enable higher value-add – whether there’s a skills scarcity or not.
Dr Neil Cobbold, commercial director at Reapit UKI, said: “As we see today with Reapit’s existing embedded AI, agencies aren’t using it to replace employees but to assist, helping them prioritise the key parts of the job that need the human touch.
“Our upcoming Reapit AI will go further than the automation and traditional AI we have within the platform today. We’re developing autonomous, self-learning AI agents designed to support specific tasks and processes within a business and the wider industry, not just generic estate agency activities.
“These agents will serve as digital companions to real-life estate agents by managing tasks, offering recommendations, and continuously learning from what proves effective, while crucially leaving property professionals in control.”
