Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I'm even feeling sorry for the estate agents - but they are reaping a bitter harvest partly of their own making.
Estate Agency News: MARKET 'IN SHREDS'
Rates of sales halved in a year, say NAEA, while Hill predicts that if current trend continues, a third of offices could close
THE slump in transactions has plunged most estate agencies into losses this Spring — and if the current trend continues, as many as a third of offices could close, Countrywide chairman Harry Hill has forecast.
Posted by rental john @ 08:59 PM (524 views) Add Comment
7 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. growler said...
I'm no fan of the architypeal obsequious estate agent in a statically charged nylon blazer. But to demand a high price if people will pay it is human nature. It's capitalism. The fault to be honest is with the LENDERS. They've played the easily led agents quite deliverately. The more they talked the market up, the more they can lend - the better the profits. Now that the market has turned, the LENDERS have shut shop and left the agents mopping up the mess. Of course the agents are to blame for a lack of expectation management - but that's human nature. Eventually people will see that what the agents are now having to admit means they can't keep banging on with their silly prices. But this takes balls. Those that do "get real" will have instructions. Those instructions will get sales at realistic prices. Those sales will generate income to keep the agents in business.
2. Mytimeisnigh said...
I'm just praying that the monthly figures form Halifax and Nationwide come in with big falls. The penny has got to drop soon and end this gridlock.
3. mark wadsworth said...
Wot? That Harry Hill?
4. montesquieu said...
@ growler
Yes the lenders are indeed largely to blame but estate agents have been responsible for a lot of the madness. I have zero sympathy.
What about the article itself though? So much for the recent VI 'I see no problem' nonsense in press released (Mr Arsets among them) if this is the kind of conversation they are having amongst themselves.
5. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
Estate Agencies are just seasonal - everyone knows this in reality. It just been a long breeding season! Now the shooting season starts in earnest.
My local 'high street' of shops - maybe 15 shops, has 3 estate agencies in it. Too many for the long term.
For many years there was only 1 or 2. Losing a 1/3 of all agencies is just a fact of life.
6. icarus said...
There'll always be a need for EAs. Somebody has to be there to deal with all the houses coming up for sale (LOL)
7. lvmreader said...
This would only be a surprise to the criminally insane.