By
Brokers have regained the confidence to recruit new headcount into their businesses heading into 2025, and many are gaining a lot of value from adding experienced parabroking talent – if they are able to pay enough to hire them.
Roland Youakim, managing director of specialist recruitment firm Platinum People Group, said June to August of 2024 was the quietest period for broker hires he had seen in the seven and a half years his business has been running.
Though the business does not usually have to “hustle”, because it is usually stocked with an organic pipeline of employers seeking to recruit, he said the “hangover” of having rates on hold for as long and other factors caused many brokers to hold off.
“If you are a small business owner, a brokerage owner, and you are trying to figure out whether you want to bring on another $80K or $100K head, you obviously want to be sure that you are busy enough and have the work available,” he said.
With factors like uncertainty around the economy, including in other global markets around the world, Youakim said a lot of brokers in the market had opted to “press pause” on hiring, leading to a “quiet winter” for people movement.
Brokers began energising their recruitment efforts again in October, a little bit later than the usual Spring property season-induced rush in September, and this wave has carried on over the holiday season and into early 2025.
“There is a feeling of confidence at the moment around the year ahead,” Youakim said.
“A lot of brokers have needed to recruit and were waiting due to a little bit of instability and uncertainty, but what I am seeing is they have really got to the point where [they] have just had to say, ‘enough is enough’ and are now going ahead.”
He gave the example of one brokerage that had approached the Platinum People Group team in May 2024 with two roles, but who had then immediately paused the recruitment project, only to brief the two roles in again to Platinum ahead of Christmas.
“We went into Christmas with more live jobs than we would normally have; brokers are usually very busy in December getting loans settled for clients and don’t have time to think about recruitment. So this is a positive sign for our industry,” he said.
Brokers are increasingly willing to pay more to secure experienced PAYG broking industry talent with the aptitudes, skill sets, attitudes and behaviours they are seeking to spur growth in their businesses, Youakim said.
However this is pushing up brokerage salaries across the board, with Platinum People Group seeing the salaries for the PAYG broking and operational positions it is filling increase 10% year-on-year for the last three years.
“We expect that, given the limited supply of high quality and experienced talent, this is likely to continue; essentially, everyone is fishing in the same pond and trying to catch the same fish,” Youakim said.
Many brokers have recently opted to augment their businesses with experienced parabroking talent, as they seek to offload time-consuming tasks like packaging up appropriate loan options to match a client’s circumstances.
However the demand for experienced parabrokers means they are now “hard roles to fill”, with candidates attracting packages of $100-$130K plus super or more. Youakim said brokers may need to consider the value of trainable, transferable candidates.
According to Platinum People Group, hiring someone who has worked in more of a loan processing-style role for a few years in a brokerage and wants to step up may cost just $80-$90K plus super, and could result in more loyalty as they are being invested in.
Brokers recruiting equals promising year
Youakim said that, although brokers could not rely on interest rate cuts, there was the potential for some reduction. Added to any policy initiatives that come out of the Federal Election, he said more buyers could be supported into the market.
“That will only help brokers. Our view is it is going to be a positive year, and we are quietly optimistic. It won’t be the best year the market has seen, but it will be a lot more compelling, in our view, than the previous year we have just had.”
