The number of commercial agents employed by British Columbia’s largest commercial real estate brokerages has dipped in the past year.
According to data collected on Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Commercial Real Estate Brokerages in B.C. list, the number of agents at the 20 largest firms shrank by an average of 2.9% over the past year.
Concurrently, the average number of commercial agents for the top 20 firms dropped to 38.3 in 2019 from 40.9 in 2018.
The average was dragged down by smaller companies lower on the list whose number of commercial agents either declined or remained static.
No. 4-ranked NAI Commercial recorded the largest one-year growth, increasing its number of commercial agents 21.7% to 73 in 2019 from 60 in 2018,
Of the five largest commercial real estate brokerages, No. 2-ranked Re/Max Commercial had the largest five-year growth. Its number of commercial agents increased 80.3% to 110 in 2019 from 61 in 2015.
The company’s growth would have been greater if it hadn’t been for the 8.3% decline Re/Max experienced over the past year, in which the commercial agent head count fell from 120 in 2018.
Re/Max was the only company in the top five to experience a decline in commercial agents.
Colliers International dominated the rest of the field with more commercial agents than the bottom 13 firms combined.
In 2017 it looked as if Re/Max commercial could challenge Colliers International for its title, growing 64% to 120 agents in 2017 from 73 in 2016 while Colliers remained unchanged at 147. Colliers has since posted steady growth while the number of commercial agents at Re/Max has fallen. •
