Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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‘We can survive the Coronavirus crisis’ claim three key estate agencies
LSL, Belvoir and Hunters have revealed how ready they are to survive the crisis and how difficult it is to plan when a return to normality is not in sight.
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Thumb twiddling? Not for this resourceful agent who is offering free videos to the industry
Ben Moore of Esme Properties has been producing videos for just a few days but has already had his offer taken up by half a dozen agencies around the UK.
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Purplebricks to furlough staff, but undecided on when to do it
Hybrid agency also reveals plan to preserve its cash pile including cutting TV and radio ads, and severely restricting online marketing spend.
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Surveyors ‘have been forgotten’ within government’s business aid packages
The Residential Property Surveyors Association says official calls for home moves to stop have left its self-employed members without income.
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Leading estate agency CEO puts positive spin on industry’s woes
Marsh & Parsons' CEO Patrick Littlemore tweets out an amusing fake ad to urge its customers to 'stay home and stay safe'.
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Countrywide furloughs mortgage brokers and warns other staff to be ready
Countrywide’s 10,000 employees have been told via email today that they face being furloughed as the Coronavirus lock-down continues to kill the property market. The Negotiator has been told that the email prepares staff for the eventuality and that employees at the company’s financial services division, which has been particularly impacted by the property market hard stop, have already been furloughed. While some sales and lettings activity is continuing, the work of mortgage brokers has been doubly difficult to sustain – home buyers are understandably reluctant to take on new debt or remortgage at the moment, while lenders have been withdrawing products and asking for ever larger LTV ratios. Countrywide’s decision is thought to be linked to the government’s announcement earlier this week that all sales and lettings home moves should not proceed unless they were already past exchange and contractually unable to stop. Work remotely Countrywide had already sent all of its employees home to work remotely and closed branches as per government advice which, now that the Coronavirus Bill has passed, is backed up by police powers to shut business premises that are not on the exempted list. The decision by Countrywide to consider furloughing its staff is…
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Kristjan Byfield: Why my business has decided to quit Rightmove
The outspoken agent from East London explains his reasoning behind the one thing most agents fear most - making the leap and quitting the UK's No.1 portal.
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Property industry’s self-employed given same deal as employees – but they can still work
The sector's small army of self-employed agents, inventory clerks, maintenance freelancers and surveyors are to be given grants of up to £2,500 a month if they are struggling financially.
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‘Some agents aren’t taking Coronavirus seriously and are still doing viewings’
The Negotiator talks to one estate agency boss about his experiences since Coronavirus struck in earnest, including his decision to furlough its 17 staff.
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Leading London estate agency faces criticism as staff continue to work at branches
Dexters boss Jeff Doble says the work to mothball the branches can only be done from its high street locations and not remotely.
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