Offices of real estate agents and brokers — NAICS 53121 industry report

01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–412,68689%

5–91,0377%

10–193893%

20–491301%

50–99360%

100–199240%

200–49940%

500+10%

Of 14,307 Canadian establishments with employees, 96% have fewer than ten — an industry of very small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario6,71047%

British Columbia2,93621%

Quebec2,22716%

Alberta1,38110%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing, US · opened 2020

88.7%

1 year

70.3%

3 years

57.9%

5 years

45%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 531, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 531 Real estate

Owning is a capital business. Managing and brokering are service businesses with low capital — and low barriers, which is why they are crowded.

Who sets the price: Local rents, cap rates and interest rates.
The software it runs on: Property management and accounting, transaction management, listing platforms.

03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5312 Offices of real estate agents and brokers covers it.

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5312

Real Estate Transaction Management SoftwareOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent Lone Wolf Technologies (Stone Point Capital; Canadian roots — Cambridge, Ontario)

The incumbents are owned by title, escrow and portal interests that monetise the transaction itself, so the software can be priced at or below cost as a channel to a much larger fee. Zillow owns dotloop, Fidelity National Financial owns SkySlope, and Lone Wolf sits behind private equity with the brokerage back office. An entrant selling software alone competes with a loss leader. The post-settlement commission reset adds real uncertainty on top. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.

NAICS 53124 vendors namedOpen →

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5312 Offices of real estate agents and brokers

Real Estate Transaction Management SoftwareOne thing must be true

binding constraint: incumbent vulnerability

Incumbent Lone Wolf Technologies (Stone Point Capital; Canadian roots — Cambridge, Ontario)

The incumbents are owned by title, escrow and portal interests that monetise the transaction itself, so the software can be priced at or below cost as a channel to a much larger fee. Zillow owns dotloop, Fidelity National Financial owns SkySlope, and Lone Wolf sits behind private equity with the brokerage back office. An entrant selling software alone competes with a loss leader. The post-settlement commission reset adds real uncertainty on top. Nothing is disclosed here. Every vendor named on this record is private, or sits inside a parent that does not break the line out, so no revenue floor can be built and the market size is genuinely unknown rather than estimated.

NAICS 53124 vendors namedOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Real estate and rental and leasing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Insurance, real estate and financial sales occupations Mostly one sector 43.8%

Managers in construction and facility operation and maintenance Mostly one sector 10.3%

Support occupations in accommodation, travel, tourism and amusement services Mostly one sector 3.9%

Auditors, accountants and investment professionals Mostly one sector 2.2%

Logging, forestry, landscaping and other related labourers Mostly one sector 1.3%

Retail salespersons and non-technical wholesale trade sales and account representatives Mostly one sector 1.2%

Automotive service technicians Mostly one sector 1.1%

Security guards and related security service occupations Mostly one sector 1.1%

Graphic and interior designers Mostly one sector 1.1%

Photographers and support occupations in arts and culture Mostly one sector 1.1%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 11.7%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 9.6%

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 5.4%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 3.6%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 3.3%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 3%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 1.7%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 1.6%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 1.3%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 1.1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 96% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

2 rows sit directly beneath 53121. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
531211	Real estate agents	8,684	screened at 5312
531212	Offices of real estate brokers	5,623	screened at 5312