Cloudstaff AU Newsletter Blog

Where Have All the Agents Gone? 

Ask any agency principal from Perth to Parramatta and they’ll tell you finding and keeping good staff is getting harder. From property managers and leasing agents to trust accountants and admin assistants, the talent pool has dried up. 

As recently as last week, Seek.com had over 4200 roles across the Property Management sector alone!  

Vacancy rates aren’t just hitting the rental market; they’re hitting agency’s operations too. In some regions, property management roles have been unfilled for months, leading to staff burnout, customer complaints, and stalled growth. 

It’s not just about wages. The cost of living, industry churn, and the increasing complexity of compliance are driving people out of real estate, and few are rushing to replace them. 

Faced with these challenges, more Australian agencies are outsourcing key roles to skilled offshore professionals. But this isn’t about cheap labour, it’s about capability, consistency, and continuity. 

Outsourced team members (often based in the Philippines) are filling roles like: 

• Leasing and tenancy administration 

• Trust accounting and receipting 

• Accounts payable and invoicing 

• Contract processing 

• Social media and listing management 

• Lead nurturing and CRM follow-up 

These offshore professionals work full-time, often exclusively for one agency, fully trained in Australian systems like PropertyMe, Console Cloud, VaultRE, and Agentbox. 

In the face of local staffing shortages, outsourcing isn’t just a backup plan, it’s becoming the go-to model for agencies who want to stay competitive and deliver great service. 

By delegating time-consuming back-office tasks to offshore staff, onshore teams can focus on what they do best: building relationships, closing deals, and managing client expectations. 

There’s a big difference between outsourcing through a structured provider versus hiring a random freelancer online. 

Ethical outsourcing providers work with agencies to: 

• Recruit and train full-time offshore staff 

• Ensure data security and compliance 

• Provide local account managers and HR oversight 

• Integrate systems for real-time collaboration 

• Maintain transparency around KPIs and performance 

This model gives agencies confidence, stability, and peace of mind, especially in a highly regulated environment like Australian real estate. 

Outsourcing isn’t about replacing people, it’s about replacing pressure. With the right support, agencies can grow without overstretching. They can offer better client service, scale operations, and finally start getting ahead instead of just keeping up.