London estate agents forced to quit as housing slowdown continues to bite

Permalink: London estate agents forced to quit as housing slowdown continues to bite
by Kay Murchie

Blenheim Bishop estate agent, based in Mayfair, London, has been forced to close its doors on sales but will continue to let properties.

The founder of the agency, Jonathan Vandermolen, said income from new homes was 75% down compared with the previous year and he is of the opinion that the market is not good long-term.

As a result, the agent will cease to sell homes and has put offices on the market and made 10 staff redundant.

However, despite the collapse of the sales side of the business, Mr Vandermolen said the lettings management division was booming.

The news follows that from other estate agents including Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward who are closing their London offices.

Meanwhile, estate agent Savills is due to report its first-half results later this week and is expected to announce that transactional volumes have slumped by 45% compared with a year ago.

Savills, which is one of the largest property agents in the UK, has undergone a cost-cutting programme which involved redundancies and the reduction in its advertising budget.

Other estate agents feeling the force of the housing slowdown include Halifax, who recently announced it is to close 53 of its estate agency branches following a decline in the number of house sales made over the last 12 months.

Furthermore, the new owner of estate agent chain Foxtons, private equity group BC Partners, has called in investment bank, NM Rothschild, to deal with a mountain of debt.