Realtors pay bigger-than-average bonuses after 12 months of record sales in Hong Kong defied city’s Covid-19 outbreak and gloomy job market

Midland Holdings said it would pay its support staff up to 2.4 months’ salary as bonus, with an average of 1.7 months, while Midland IC&I pays 1.35 months

Centaline’s bonuses rose to a three-year high of 2.44 months’ salary for supervisors and 1.63 months for clerical staff. The company is raising pay by 3 per cent

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A sell-out crowd turned up for the #Lyos apartments in Hung Shui Kiu at CK Asset Holdings’ sales office in Hung Hom on 6 November 2021, where 36 buyers competed for every available unit. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 11:00am, 26 Jan 2022Updated: 1:45pm, 26 Jan 2022

Hong Kong’s realtors will increase the bonus cheques of their clerical staff this year, after 12 months of record property transactions that defied the city’s gloomy labour market and a resurgent Covid-19 outbreak.

Midland Holdings Limited, Hong Kong’s sole publicly traded agency, said it would pay up to 2.4 months of salary as bonuses for clerks and support staff, with the average pegged at 1.7 months. Midland IC&I, a unit of the Midland Group that specialises in non-residential commercial property, will pay up to 1.95 months, with the average being 1.35 months.

Midland’s 2021 revenue may jump 23 per cent to a record HK$6.11 billion (US$785 million) according to Bloomberg’s consensus forecasts, “thanks to the contributions of [our] colleagues,” said the agency’s Deputy Chairman Angela Wong. “So while the pandemic is still severe, we distribute [bigger] bonuses to thank them for their contributions and for always sticking to their posts.”

Hong Kong’s 2021 property transactions – comprising homes, shops, offices, industrial buildings and even car-parking space – jumped 46.1 per cent to HK$917.8 billion (US$117.87 billion), according to Land Registry’s data, the highest volume since records began in 1996.

Midland Holdings Limited’s Midland Realty branch in Hong Kong’s Happy Valley on 8 March 2019. Photo: Jonathan Wong

That made 2021 a bumper year for realtors, where salespeople collect fees from both sides of every transaction. The sales agent typically gets a commission equal to 1 per cent of the transacted value each from the buyer and the seller for lived-in homes. Higher fees apply for new residential property.

At Centaline Property Agency, Hong Kong’s biggest real estate sales network, bonuses have similarly increased to a three-year high, with supervisors getting 2.44 months’ salary as bonuses while support staff get 1.63 months.

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