Evaluation by proptech supplier Reapit is seeing brokers throughout the UK turning to AI and automation in an effort to fight a expertise scarcity within the trade.
The corporate’s inaugural Property Outlook Report 2025 reveals that the majority businesses are struggling to recruit and that the variety of payrolled folks working in actual property is rising at its slowest tempo because the Covid-19 pandemic, regardless of the best unemployment price since Could 202.
It has discovered that greater than half of the businesses that had been hiring had been receiving fewer than 5 certified candidates per emptiness.
In line with the newest information from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (ONS), the variety of UK payrolled actual property staff grew by simply 1% between July 2024 and July 2025. That is the weakest year-on-year enhance since Could 2021, when payrolled worker development stood at 0.9% amid the worldwide pandemic.
As a consequence, the place businesses are struggling to seek out the fitting folks for his or her job alternatives, they’re more and more turning to proptech, automation and AI to enhance effectivity, says the report. Over 50% of these surveyed reported elevated use of time-saving expertise, whereas practically 80% imagine it’s cheaper to put money into automation than to extend headcount. An additional 69% say it’s additionally extra productive.
Dr Neil Cobbold, industrial director at Reapit UKI, defined: “As we see at the moment with Reapit’s present embedded AI, businesses aren’t utilizing it to exchange staff however to help, serving to them prioritise the important thing components of the job that want the human contact.”
Of these surveyed, one-third mentioned that proptech is central to their companies’ drive for larger profitability, extra so than reducing prices or elevating charges. In all, whereas the bulk had been at the moment impartial, some 41.5% of respondent thought AI could be a internet constructive and solely 2.7% mentioned it might have a damaging impression on their roles over the subsequent 5 years.
Reapit says this marks a “cultural shift” in how expertise is valued throughout the sector because it continues to develop autonomous, self-learning AI brokers designed to help particular duties and processes inside a enterprise and the broader trade. These AI agent will function repeatedly studying “digital companions to real-life property brokers”, it says, repeatedly studying however leaving property professionals in management.
The report additionally highlights a generational shift. Whereas 76% of brokers plan to remain within the sector for 5 years or extra, a big quantity both intend to depart the sector or retire, and businesses might want to change not simply folks, however a long time of operational information, and the complexities of legal guidelines and rules such because the Renters’ Rights Invoice, money-laundering and EPC necessities. Brokers can very successfully use AI and automation to unlock time to give attention to addressing new compliance necessities, says the Reapit report.
Cobbold commented: “Whereas the character of the present expertise shortage will turn into clearer over time, it’s clear that businesses are nonetheless prioritising development, and new hires are an important a part of the equation. Our report exhibits that lots of them are embracing tech and AI to remain productive and worthwhile.
“It’s clear that automation and AI are now not luxuries however strategic requirements to develop an property or letting company. We are going to solely see this cultural shift in the direction of sooner adoption of proptech speed up as expertise improves. Each employers and the workforce would do properly to embrace the brand new wave of AI and automation-enablement.”
