The majority of real estate professionals have seen their workload impacted since the pandemic was declared, putting the industry above the national average.
The COVID-19 Business Confidence Survey, commissioned by REB sister brand My Business, encouraged participants across a range of industries (accounting, aviation, defence, financial services, law, mortgage and finance broking, and real estate) to take part in an online questionnaire between 2 and 22 April.
The survey serves as a barometer of how businesses are adapting to the changed working and social environment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collectively speaking, 35 per cent of respondents had seen their workload decrease at the time of completing the survey, 33 per cent saw an increase and 32 per cent reported no change.
This differs vastly when breaking down the results industry by industry.
According to the survey, 51 per cent of those in the real estate industry had seen their workload decrease at the time of completing, while 32 per cent had seen an increase and 17 per cent saw no change.
When examining the COVID-19 pandemic impact to workload, this puts the real estate industry only second to the aviation industry, where 65 per cent of respondents had seen their workload decrease.
Meanwhile, 43 per cent of mortgage and finance broking respondents had seen their workload take a hit, followed by 38 per cent of legal respondents, 19 per cent of defence industry respondents and 16 per cent of financial services respondents.
Those in the accounting space appear to be faring the best workload-wise, with just 13 per cent of respondents indicating they had seen workloads decrease.
Looking ahead at the next three months, 36 per cent of real estate professionals surveyed said they expect workload to remain the same as what it is now, 33 per cent expect a further decrease and 31 per cent expect an increase.