Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

Association of Residential Letting Agents

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Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

14th September 2004

Cementing its position as the most representative professional body, research from ARLA, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, shows that the rental market is still a woman's world even though ARLA members employ the largest number of lettings staff in the industry. New research shows that ARLA members employ nearly 8,000 lettings staff but less than a third of these are men.

In some 1,000 ARLA member offices throughout the country there are only 2,500 men against 5,400 women. Nearly four out of ten ARLA member offices have no male staff employed in letting at all.

Together, the average number of staff employed for more than half their time in lettings is 5.4 for each office. This breaks down to 5.1 members of staff for prime central London, 5.6 in the rest of the South East and 5.3 throughout the rest of the UK.

There is not a lot of difference in the gender breakdown by location. In prime central London, there is an average of just 1.6 men in each office and outside London and the South East it is even lower with an average of just 1.5. However, in the South East, away from London, this average does, finally, rise to two male members of staff in each office.

This compares to 3.5 women employed on average in prime central London lettings offices and 3.6 in the rest of the South East. This leaves the rest of the country top of the league with 3.8 female staff in each office.

Said Adrian Turner, Chief Executive of ARLA, "Considering that lettings is the sunrise sector of the property business, especially since the advent of Buy to Let, it really is astonishing that it has been left so clearly to women to seize the opportunities. Perhaps the Association and its member firms need to do more to encourage a greater balance."

Along with the employment survey, ARLA has also announced the results of the July testing for ARLA Foundation and ARLA Advanced qualifications.

A total of 633 candidates took the Foundation tests. 38 passed with distinction, 178 passed with merit and 234 achieved a pass. At the advanced level, 173 sat the test. There were 11 distinctions, 28 merits and 60 passes.

Since the ARLA qualifications were introduced in 1996, a total of 5,493 have passed in the levels of the Foundation course and 470 have passed the Advanced qualification,.

For details of a career in lettings, see the ARLA website, www.arla.co.uk, pay a visit to www.lettingcareers.com or talk to your nearest ARLA member.