Renewal Roundup
| February 08, 2019
The latest renewal period is behind us, and overall, the industry outlook remains positive.
The Numbers
Year-over-year, the number of individuals licensed in Alberta remained stable. Real estate had the highest number of professionals in five years, and both mortgage professionals and real estate appraisal decreased slightly.
As of October 7, 2018, there were 12,193 real estate professionals, 2,124 mortgage brokerage professionals (a decrease of 26), and 565 individuals in the real estate appraisal sector (a decrease of 13). The number of new appraisal professionals is down over the last three years, and is below the five-year trend. The mortgage industry followed the five-year trend of a lower number of brokerages, but stable number of individuals, showing consolidation of brokerages within the industry.
This year the industry continued to see an increase in new professionals joining the industry. Between Oct. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018, 1,444 people joined the industry. Last year, 1,365 people joined. The industry also saw fewer individuals leaving the industry for the second consecutive year.
Renewal Experience
During this year’s renewal period, RECA took a more proactive role, by tackling renewal issues early with various communications discussing important subjects such as notifying RECA of section 40 issues before starting a renewal, avoiding mistaken “yes” answers in the suitability questions, and industry professionals who renew then transfer brokerages. As a result, RECA saw an increase in early renewals. On September 24, 15% more industry professionals had renewed compared to the previous renewal period. Overall, we saw one of our most efficient renewal periods to date. Thank you to everyone who was proactive with their renewal last year.
The graph below shows the renewal percentages throughout September.
Moving Forward
RECA departments completed internal reviews of this year’s renewal, and will talk to brokerages in the coming months to identify opportunities for further improvements in the annual renewal process.
Helpful Tip
RECA had numerous calls about forgotten usernames and passwords during this year’s renewal process. It is a good idea to keep your username and password on file for future reference.
If you do forget your username or password, there are options on the myRECA login page to have your username sent to you or reset your password. Simply go to www.myreca.ca and you will find the forgot username and forgot password links beside the login.
