Property firm senior director sacked. 100 agents quit, more may follow. But property firm boss says...
MORE than 100 agents have left property firm Propnex following the exit of a director.
Ex-Propnex director: ERIC CHENGSenior division director Eric Cheng, who headed one of the largest teams there, has joined rival firm HSR Property Group.
These two are the largest real estate agencies here.
Mr Cheng said many more agents from Propnex are joining him in what could be the biggest en-masse movement in the industry here in recent years.
The former flight steward headed a team of more than 1,000 agents at Propnex. The firm now has more than 5,000 agents.
Mr Cheng, 32, revealed this morning that he is assuming the role of executive director (agency) at HSR. He will be leading a team of more than 5,000 agents there.
The New Paper understands that his termination at Propnex was due to a conflict of interest over his own company, the ECG Group, which does property development, carleasing and rental.
Propnex CEO Mohamed Ismail confirmed that about 100 agents had left the company.
He said Mr Cheng's contract was terminated because his conduct of business was not in alignment with the company's growth plans.
Mr Cheng had been with Propnex for about five years.
Mr Ismail said big groups of agents quitting en-masse was not new in the real estate industry.
Propnex CEO: MOHAMED ISMAILHe added: 'Even if 500 people leave with him, I won't consider it a great impact on the company.
'His termination was initiated by us and we had weighed the risk.'
He said about 2,000 new agents have joined the company in the last 10 months.
Said Mr Ismail: 'Initially we thought about 50 per cent of his agents would leave with him. But because of our value-add services, only about 100 have left.
'We have assigned existing agents to other team leaders and they've sworn allegiance to the company.'
He said that when a leader leaves, usually, 30 to 50 per cent of his team will follow.
While more agents may still leave, he felt it's unlikely that the number will be as high as 500.
But his counterpart at HSR, chief executive Patrick Liew, offers different figures.
He said about 300 Propnex agents from Mr Cheng's team have already joined his company and he expects another 500 to move in the next few months.
Apparently, not all of them have resigned from Propnex yet.
Industry watchers say mass movements of agents are not unusual.
But ERA Singapore assistant vice-president Eugene Lim said it would still be rare to have 500 quitting, especially if they're mostly full-timers.
He said: 'In our business, the reality is that no matter what you do, agents will leave. The turnover is high and people move for different reasons, better commission rates, office politics.'
But they may still stick with their team leader.
ERA has just under 50 divisions, each headed by a director with more than 100 people under him.
Mr Daniel Chua, a partner at Land+ DC Realty, said such manpower losses are not a big issue for a big company like Propnex.
He asked: 'Even if 500 agents leave the company, how many of them are full-time or active agents? And how many of them are top producers?'
The bitter rivalry between Propnex and HSR is not new.
In May this year, HSR International Realtors was named the largest real estate agency here by the Singapore Book of Records with its 5,136 agents.
It used 'the largest real estate agency' as a tagline for advertisements.
Then Propnex sent out a statement claiming that its 5,686 agents make it 'truly Singapore's largest real estate company' - a slogan it said it has always used on its website.
Now the question is, with this recent movement, who will be the biggest?
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