Monday, Jun 16, 2008
Foxtons on the rocks
FT: Sale of the century
A great article. Clear that the company is headed for receivership.
Posted by confused76 @ 10:37 AM (1592 views) Add Comment
16 Comments
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1. growler said...
"Speaking to Estate Agency News in May, Harry Hill, chairman of Countrywide, Britain’s largest agency group, said: “The market is in shreds.” "
But it needn't be this bad. Just get the price right, and you'll earn some money as property will sell. The Estate Agents need to act collectively to re-educate buyers. Gone are the days of money no object borrowing. For probably at least 3-5 years. In my neck of the woods (Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield) prices are falling and properties that are on are reducing in price.
A funny thing happened to us last week. We had a call from an EA regarding an "open house". It wasn't that long ago that when you called an agent they told you - "it's open 10-12. Sorry, we can't do a meeting before or afterwards and will be takign offers from then". Now they invited us to drinks and biscuits/snacks. The voice of depression was deafening when we told them we've extended our rental house. A quick drive by showed no cars there at all. Oh dear - so much for "property slump proof" South Bucks.
2. Davidg said...
Interesting article. I've done some business with Jon Hunt in the mid 90s and he's certainly no fool. My impression was that rentals kept them going through the 89-93 downturn in London. The market was certainly pretty buoyant in 92-93 when I rented through Foxtons.
3. techieman said...
this comes from the weekend FT magazine. The piece is the lead. It has a great picture on the front of a foxton's mini on bricks with the wheels nicked. Nice one!
This buyout is akin to i think - black horse agencies as Lloyds as it was took over a large chain of estate agents at the top of the last market peak. No tears will be lost.
4. str 2007 said...
Growler
I walked down Marlow High Street (South Bucks) at the weekend.
Ballards - a local upmarket agent had in its window a photo copy of a Daily Express article dated May 2008 Headlining that house prices won't crash.
These guys sell £1m+ properties and have had to resort to Daily Express headlines.
I so wanted that HPC News blog sticker to plant underneath the article in their window.
The Marlow agents have been trying to convince people house prices don't ever go down here - very funny.
5. mark wadsworth said...
What Growler says. EA's could be our unwitting allies in all this.
6. crash bandicoot said...
Isn't the estate agent's job to fetch as high a price as possible for the seller? Surely setting a price that is unreallistically high and prevents a sale is failing in this job. Is there some chance that a seller could resort to legal action if they had been incorrectly advised by a "professional"?
7. Jonathan said...
@Crash - as MW says they could be allies. It's not in the EA's interests to over value houses now. They could only do that when they had an expectation that it would sell. Now 1.5% commision on a house that doesn't sell is approx £0.
Even .5% of a house that is sold at -10% down on the market is real money that they will pocket. shortly, if not already, increasingly desperate EAs will instruct their clients to drop the price and offer a reduction on their commision to keep the property on the books.
8. sosoon said...
Crash
Surveyors are professionals. EA aren’t. EA have been telling every one what they want to hear.
9. hpwatcher said...
ha bloody ha!
10. dohousescrashinthewoods said...
If it dies, good riddance to this poisonous weed of a company. Too bad the seed got away scott-free.
I believe I commented on here at the time of the sale that this looked like cunning timing.
My wife has heard an EA rival actually call them F*ckstons when viewing a property.
"Meet the Fockerstons - And you thought your agents were embarrassing"
11. doomwatch said...
Big stupid loans, little income. It's a fitting end.
12. Dark Horse said...
@Growler
Of course, South Bucks has (had?) some pretty expensive properties there, as I'm sure you know. There's a reason it's one of the safest Tory areas in the country. Still, the bigger they are the harder they fall...
I particularly like the bit of poetic justice in the FT article:
"If [Foxton's] value has fallen more than [28%], it is a company in negative equity"
13. Rental John said...
See www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/15/ccestates115.xml&page=2
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