Die Zahl der pleitegegangenen britischen Immobilienmakler steigt innerhalb eines Jahres um 32 % auf 286 – die Gesamttransaktionen sind auf dem niedrigsten Stand seit mehr als einem Jahrzehnt
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/sep/30/number-of-uk-estate-agents-going-bust-rises-almost-a-third-in-one-year
Von marketrent
12 Comments
It’s like reading a headline that says “Murder hornets going extinct”
I’m sure they have a use… but I’m struggling to be unhappy about it.
Excerpts from [article](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/sep/30/number-of-uk-estate-agents-going-bust-rises-almost-a-third-in-one-year) by Gwyn Topham, with Rebecca Dacre/Forvis Mazars:
• According to figures from the Insolvency Service, 286 UK estate agency firms went out of business in the 12 months to 31 July, a 32% increase from the 216 in the previous year.
• The highest cost of borrowing for 15 years has hit lettings as well as sales, according to Forvis Mazars, an international tax and advisory firm, which said investors were finding better returns away from [highly-levered] buy to let.
• UK residential property transactions fell by 12% in the year to 30 June to 861,210, according to HMRC data – the lowest level in more than 10 years.
This is cyclical. The survivors will wait out this period of low buying/poor borrowing conditions, then when the next boom comes they’ll proliferate like it’s going to rain champagne for the next millenia.
No complaint in the meantime though!
Is it time to dust off my poorly fitting Debenhams suit, get a broccoli haircut, get my eyebrows threaded, a minor coke habit and get back into cut and thrust arena that is Estate Agency??
Time for the lads making 12% off doing fuck all to get a proper job.
Houses sell themselves tbh, you dont need someone selling them
I mean, loads are getting sold corporations and merged into bigger businesses.
Well maybe if they hadn’t advised all their landlord clients to put their rents up above inflation, they would have customers who could afford a middleman
This isn’t a loss. It’s a massively unregulated market filled, from my experience, with not particularly competent people. The sooner some of the cowboy shops close the better for us all.
I recently moved and I genuinely can’t figure out what my letting agent actually does. I booked the viewing through a third party booking platform. I then filled in the paperwork and background/referencing was done through another third party who also handle repairs. I had to set up a standing order because they didn’t do direct debit. They didn’t provide me with these details until 5 weeks into moving in so I had to call them and tell them the rent was late because I’d not been supplied with any method to pay. The contract was also done through a third party website. It seems like all they did was hold onto the keys.
It’s almost as if selling all the houses to landlords to rent out stifled the market 😅
This doesn’t make me sad. I guess they serve a function but who likes estate agents.