One in 10 say they are going to employ two or more new members of staff.

Some 28 per cent of respondents to a new survey cite the stamp duty holiday extension as a key influence on their hiring decisions over the next year.

However, the vast majority believe that the government’s new 95 per cent guaranteed mortgage scheme will not have a significant effect on the market – and is thus not an influence on their long term staffing plans.

“Many agents are still finding their feet after the initial financial instability of lockdown and the average agent has around £100,000 in fees stuck in their pipeline due to the current market backlog. As a result, they may be hesitant to hire as they lack the immediate financial resources to do so” claims Silas J Lees, chief executive of WiggyWam, the PropTech platform behind the survey.

“It is an area that needs property consideration though as lack of effective new hires could lead to rising stress levels as they feel the burden of doing more work than humanly possible” he concludes.