Nearly half of agency enquiries arrive out of hours, says LightWork

Nearly half of calls, emails and portal enquiries received by estate and letting agencies arrive outside normal working hours, according to new data from proptech firm LightWork AI.

Analysis of enquiries handled by its AI assistant Felicity in July, August and September 2026 found that 43% arrived outside normal working hours, defined as 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

This translated specifically to 28% of phone calls and 49% of emails and portal enquiries.

The findings highlight the growing pressure on agency staff to remain available during evenings, weekends and holidays, adding to wider concerns around workload, burnout and retention across the sector.

LightWork also cited third-party research from Hays and Alto respectively to support their findings – that 65% of property and built environment professionals work beyond their contracted hours, while six in 10 estate and letting agencies report burnout among their teams.

Full-time estate agents also earn an average of £35,990 a year, according to ONS figures, around 26% below the UK full-time average.

The ‘always-on’ agent

LightWork says the nature of estate agency means staff can feel unable to ignore an out-of-hours enquiry because it could represent anything from a potential instruction to an urgent maintenance issue.

Leonard Charlton, co-founder of LightWork AI, said: “When we started handling calls and emails for agencies, we expected some after-hours demand. We didn’t expect to see nearly as much as we did. For many branches, most of the enquiries come in when the office is closed.”

He added: “The result is that [agents] never really finish work. They’re under pressure, they’re dealing with clients in times of high stress, and then their evenings and weekends disappear too. It’s no surprise the industry is struggling to keep good people.”

LightWork says Felicity is designed to handle routine enquiries, qualify leads, book viewings and triage maintenance requests around the clock, with agencies able to set their own rules for when matters are escalated to staff.

The company says the aim is to allow agents to focus on client-facing work while reducing the volume of routine enquiries reaching teams outside normal office hours.

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Author: Gemma