Estate agencies closing due to housing slowdown

Permalink: Estate agencies closing due to housing slowdown
by Kay Murchie

According to business monitor company Debtwire, estate agencies are closing due to the housing slowdown and the number of agencies has dropped from 13,000 to 12,000 already this year.

As a result, 4,000 jobs have been lost. The company said the rate of closures had escalated and is currently 150 each week.

The research shows the impact the worldwide credit squeeze is having on the UK property market and the economy as a whole.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, warned that unless banks and building societies increased lending to mortgage applicants, the situation would deteriorate.

According to Mr Bolton King, there is no shortage of people who want to move house but without mortgages, it makes it harder.

The latest figures from the Bank of England show that the number of new mortgages approved in March was the lowest since records started in 1999.

Estate agencies are closing because there just isn’t enough movement in the housing market and that is likely to have a much wider impact because a healthy housing market is essential for the health of the high street, said Mr Bolton King.

The UK’s largest estate agency group, Countrywide, which incorporates Bairstow Eves, Gascoigne-Pees and RA Bennett & Partners, has closed 50 branches so far this year and is planning more cost-cutting.

Lat month, Movewithus, estimated that about 4,000 of the country’s 12,000 estate agents will close by the end of the year.

Robin King of Movewithus said the current climate meant fewer people wanted to buy property, with first-time buyers and families being squeezed out of the market altogether.

Estate agent closures would be massive after sales within the network dropped by between 30 and 50%, added Mr King.