Why are there so many insurance agents but not as many property agents in today's market?

Relative easieness to sell a policy than a property in general

When economy not doing well, its harder to convince people to part money to buy into an investment (property) whose return is not guranteed as compared to a guaranteed return (albeit much lower) by an insurance company

You need to look at the number of agents relative to the transaction volume, with a balance on the value of the business. The higher number of insurance agents is to serve to higher volume of insurance transactions in Singapore.

Say, you have 2000 property transaction per year and 500000 insurance transaction per year. You might have 400 property agents and 25000 insurance agents which equates to a ratio of 1:5 for property agents and 1: 20 for insurance agents.​​​

Singapore market is relatively saturated with both insurance agents and property agents. I think there is oversupply for both sectors, but quantity-wise insurance agents are definitely much higher and more common-place. It is a bigger industry, more players, and more diversification eg. financial planners, investment analysts etc.

But simple logic - insurance demands also higher, one person can afford multiple insurance policies, but can only afford one property.

Do you have a property of your own? you will probably get leaflets and brochures week after week after week....

If you have property for rent/sales, you will get many approaches by unsolicited agents.

Property agents tend to seek property owners or property seekers.

There are many many property agents too. Excess of what is ideal for the market, but thats the government and society's problems i guess.

20/80 rules apply. Same as insurance agents, 20% of them probably manage 80% volume of the market.

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” What Steve Jobs said to Pepsi executive John Sculley to lure him to Apple.

Do something that you like that you can change the world :D

To add on to the answers here, the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) course is known to be difficult (can you imagine having to understand Land Law?!) and has a relatively high failure rate. This may be one small factor why people are averse to taking up the profession.

Having said that, it's also a relief to know that the barriers to entry are high - and this helps to ensure that the quality of agents moving forward is kept high!

The profitability of a career depends on the amount of hard work that you are willing and able to put in. At the end of the day, no lunch in the world in free.

Not many property agents??? Every day I come home there is a couple of flyers stuffed against my door/gate for some property agent promising riches....