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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Countrywide shares drop 20% in a day to all-time low
Countrywide shares dropped by 20.3% yesterday following its trading update revealing what it described as “disappointing” results and warning of lower-than-expected profits. The share price tumbled by 16% from £1.38p a share to £1.14p a share in the first hours of trading but rather than rallying, continued its downward trend to finish at £1.10p, its lowest price ever. Countrywide’s shares have dipped to near this in recent months – £1.07p in September and £1.08p in November both last year. The current price is an 83% reduction from its peak of £6.94p in November 2014. City concern over the company’s performance and its inevitable drift downwards have been driven largely by a deteriorating sales market, its cumbersome size following years of energetic market share grabbing, an expensive branch and staff reduction programme, and the encroaching threat of hybrid agents such as Purplebricks within it score middle market. Despite attempts to fight back with its own hybrid offering, yesterday’s results suggested Countrywide has a while to go before its on an even keel. Its results revealed a “disappointing fourth quarter performance” in sales and letting, where income dropped by 14% last year. Countrywide shares But it wasn’t all grim news yesterday. Countrywide’s…
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High street agent enters the auction scene
Christie’s estate agents, partner agents with Network Auctions, has listed the First Church of Christ, Scientist, a freehold site of 0.32 acres occupying a prominent position on Cheam Road, Sutton, Surrey.
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Revealed: how much rogue estate agents are damaging the industry
The extent to which rogue estate agents are damaging the industry’s reputation has been laid bare today by new research. The problems are most acute in the private rental sector,but affect all of it. For example, 41% of tenants who used an ‘approved’ letting agent signed up to a professional body said problems with their property were fixed within a week, but only 25% of those used an ‘unapproved’ agent received the same service. The research, which covers transactions over the past five years and was completed by Propertymark, highlights the most common problems tenants encounter including poor property management, the slow replacement of faulty furnishings and white goods, and a reluctance to return deposits fast enough. Propertymark’s research also highlights a key challenge faced by the industry as a whole. Rogue estate agents Over a third of buyers and sellers, and 42% of renters don’t bother to check if the agent they are using has signed up to the key regulatory bodies or is a member of a professional organisation – leaving the door open for rogue estate agents. This is creating significant problems for the industry’s reputation, the research shows. Over half of all the buyers, vendors and…
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Latest Countrywide results reveal alarming decline in sales and lettings revenue
Countrywide says its financial services and business-to-business operations delivered strong growth last year, but otherwise its latest trading update is unlikely to impress investors in the City. Group income for 2017 is expected to be down 8.8% year-on-year and down by 8.4% year-on-year for the final quarter. The City is likely to be worried in particular by Countrywide’s group pre-tax profits, which dropped year-on-year by 22% to £65 million. Countrywide expects its sales and lettings business to have produced £360m last year when the final results are published in March, down 14% on 2016, which it blames on a “disappointing” final quarter last year. Its lettings business performed best declining by 4% last year while sales income dropped by 14%. London market One glimmer of hope for the company is the improving London market, where a decline in income has been halted and its sales operation is doing better than the rest of the country. But the battering for its sales and lettings operation is clear in the figures – profits are due to be down 45% year-on-year for 2017, although Countrywide says the cost of its recent branch closures and staff cuts made over the past two years are…
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Hybrid letting agency claims tenant creditworthiness ‘first’ after deal with Experian
Hybrid lettings agency No Agent is to begin reporting its tenant’s payment histories to partner credit reference agency Experian, and is claiming to be the first agent with national reach to do so. The London-based online hybrid agency says it wants to help the tenants who live in the properties it manages to improve their chances of getting on the property ladder and create a level playing credit score playing field for both tenants and home owners. No Agent will be reporting its tenants ‘one-time’ rent payment though Experian’s Rental Exchange initiative, which enables larger agents, landlords and social housing providers to record tenants’ payments in large volumes. “Rent is usually the largest regular payment in a household and should be the main indicator of creditworthiness,” says No Agent CEO Calum Brannan (pictured, left). “Yet tenants paying rent regularly don’t see this reflected on their credit scores in the same way homeowners do with their mortgage payments. “It’s making it even harder for them to get on the ladder and it’s simply not fair. So we are partnering with Experian to change things for Generation Rent.” Experian’s Rental Exchange system doesn’t require the permission of landlords to pass on their…
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Peter Alan acquires Roberts & Co’s lettings
Wales’ largest estate agent, Peter Alan, part of Connells Group, has acquired Roberts & Co Property Management Limited.
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Major UK agent signs up to rent empty properties via Airbnb
Franchised agency network Hunters is piloting a scheme in Manchester that will enable its landlord and vendor clients to rent out their properties via Airbnb and other short-term rental sites. The first properties to be offered for short-term rent are within Bracken House (pictured, right), a development of apartments within the city centre. The new service is a partnership with Lavanda.co.uk, which has launched an agent version of its property management service to facilitate the deal. Hunters says the Manchester pilot has been a “great success” and will be rolled across the national Hunters 200-branch network over the next 12 months. Properties must be let out for a minimum of two nights and will be managed by Lavanda including a furnishing service for empty properties, tenant vetting, hotel-style housekeeping, face-to-face check-ins and a 24-7 concierge service. Lavanda will also advertise the properties, it says, via all the major short-term rental websites including Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway and Expedia. “Much to the frustration of vendors, the recent slow sales market has led to swathes of prime property sitting empty,” says Guy Westlake, CEO of Lavanda (pictured, left). “This has not only resulted in landlords suffering a significant loss of income, but [for…
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Currell opens in Hackney Wick Fish Island
London-based residential and commercial agency Currell opened a new Hackney Wick Fish Island (HWFI) office in November.
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Savills says its UK estate agency branches enjoyed strong finish to 2017 despite “uncertainty”
Savills says its UK residential arm helped grow its group revenue during 2017 “ahead of our previous expectations” as it prepares to publish its full-year results in March. The company’s statement to the stock exchange early this morning reveals that it experienced a stronger than expected finish to the year helped both by its resilient UK residential business but also its presence in several expanding commercial property markets overseas. These include Hong Kong, China, Australia, Japan, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, the company says. These countries performed better than Savills had expected and helped offset a wobble in the US office market which has been impacted by reduced government spending, and the recent cost of setting up Savills’ Capital Markets operation in New York. It is now part of its wider global property investment advice and brokerage team. Savills says it helped commercial clients buy and sell property assets worth €5.5 billion last year and launched several property funds. 2018 worries But the company’s now largely global business may be not so rosy next year. Savills says that “in the current year, against the backdrop of heightened uncertainty over global economic prospects, geopolitical risks and rising interest rates, we expect…
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Council fines letting agent for giving tenant advice about rubbish
A letting agent in Sunderland has been fined nearly £800 for advising a tenant to dump rubbish sacks, several armchairs and a faulty fridge at the back of the property. The fine is part of the local council’s ongoing attempts to stamp out fly tipping in the city, which has seen it issue 450 formal warnings, three statutory notices, 86 fixed penalties and charged people to clear rubbish 43 times. After the tenant moved into the property on Hendon Burn Avenue and found the rubbish in her back yard, she called the agent to ask that it be removed, but nothing was done. During a subsequent a subsequent Fire Service inspection found that it was blocking the fire escape. The tenant then called the letting agent again, who told her to dump the items at the back of the property for collection by bin men during their weekly collection service. But Sunderland Council’s Environmental Enforcement Officers then spotted the rubbish and interviewed the agent, who admitted giving the advice despite not having visited the property. She, rather than the tenant, was served with a fixed penalty notice of £350 plus a £426 fine to remove the waste. “This was a…
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