15,000 estate agents’ jobs under threat

With the decline of the UK housing market over the past 15 months or so, some 5,000 to 7,000 estage agents have lost their jobs, and much worse is expected.

[ClickPress, Fri Nov 14 2008] With the decline of the UK housing market over the past 15 months or so, some 5,000 to 7,000 estage agents have lost their jobs, and much worse is expected. On the back of a 50% decline in housing sales since the market peaked in July 2007, it is estimated that up to half of Britain’s 30,000 estate agents could lose their jobs before there are any signs of the market improving.

Several of the country’s largest estate agencies have taken measures to cope with the severe downturn in the market. Savills has let go of a number of estate agents and surveyors and has closed one of its offices outside London, with other offices likely to follow. Humberts was the first leading estate agency to close down over the summer, while Halifax has shut 50 of its estate agency branches; Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency, has had its credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, which says the company may run out of cash over the next 12 months. Countrywide has meanwhile tried to reassure its 8,000 staff that the business is sound and can ride out the market difficulties. Foxtons is thought to be at risk because of its high levels of debt, though this has been denied by sources close to the company.

Elsewhere throughout the country, smaller estate agencies have been forced into mergers, administration or liquidation, unable to sustain their business in the face of such a huge drop in market activity. As Chris Wood of the National Association of Estate Agents said, “If you take the worst-case scenario that housing sales have fallen by 50 per cent, then you would expect the industry to lose 50 per cent of its people. It's something of a Darwinian process.”

On the lettings side of the market, the picture is a bit brighter, as many people who have sold their properties choose to rent for the time being and wait for prices to fall further.

Unfortunately for first-time buyers, the advantages of a fall in prices, which normally would have signalled optimum conditions for them to enter the market, have been cancelled out by the credit crunch, which has made it very difficult for them to obtain mortgages or house loans – so they too are forced to continue renting.





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Email: phil@dhbuyers.co.uk
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