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During housing's boom times, real estate agents made a killing

Happy couple is taking keys from their new house from broker and smiling. (Getty)
Happy couple is taking keys from their new house from broker and smiling. (Getty)

It’s been less than two years since one of the most meteoric rises for Canadian real estate in recorded history. It was a time of crazy bidding wars as prices hit all-time highs. People that sold at the peak made out like bandits.

Now we’re learning realtors did pretty well too thanks to new data from Statistics Canada.

Despite the introduction of the Fair Housing plan in Ontario and two national mortgage rate hikes, operating revenue for the real estate agents and brokers industry was $15 billion in 2017 — a 8.5 per cent bump from the previous year.

Firms in Ontario and British Columbia brought in 78 per cent of that revenue. Ontario accounted for 10.3 per cent of the increase and B.C accounted for 7 per cent.

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Realtors got an even bigger pay raise in 2016 with a 15.4 per cent increase.

(Canadian Real Estate Association)
(Canadian Real Estate Association)

Expenses grew by 9 per cent to $10.6 billion in 2017. At 38.4 per cent the biggest cost was subcontract expenses, which include commission expenses paid to other brokers. Salaries, wages, commissions, and benefits accounted for 14.4 per cent.

As a result, operating profit margin fell over so slightly from 29.3 per cent in 2016 to 2017.

Specifical salaries were not part of the Statistics Canada report. According to the job search site Indeed, the current average salary for a realtor at RE/MAX is $111,557 a year.

Home prices and especially sales fell in most of the countries hottest markets in 2018. Data from the next report in 2020 will provide insight into how hard the slowdown hit realtors in their wallets.

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