estate agents
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Latest property news
Commons committee measures up property industry for Brexit risk
The effect Brexit is likely to have on the property industry has been revealed by a House of Commons committee. Its research, published today, shows that 3% of the UK’s 43,000-strong sales, lettings and property management related workforce are EU nationals and 1.5% are non-EU nationals – or nearly five percent of the workforce in total. Based on ONS figures, the committee therefore concludes that if many of these people were to leave the UK and return to their home countries, it would not pose a threat. “The work of UK-based estate agents is primarily domestic and is generally not highly dependent on EU labour,” the report by the House of Commons Committee on Exiting the European Union says. Brexit: EU renters More problematical is the high number of ‘other nationalities’ who rent properties in the UK, the Brexit report suggests. It quotes the most recent English Housing Survey, which points to nearly a quarter of all privately rented accommodation being inhabited by EU nationals or those from outside Europe. The ‘other nationalities’ highlighted in the report also own 3.4% of all owner-occupied properties, although this is much higher in central London’s prime districts, and 8.4% of local authority –…
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Latest property news
Good news? Estate agents are now more trusted than footballers
There are many estate agents who dream of being professional football players during quieter moments at work or when playing in the local pub team. But few are likely to realise that they share one thing in common with them; very low levels of trust among members of the public. The latest national survey about the UK’s professions by IPSOS Mori reveals that although estate agents remain near the bottom of the ‘trust league’, they are just above professional footballers (26%), on a par with journalists (27%), and well above government ministers (19%) and politicians generally (17%). IPSOS Mori’s research also reveals that more women than men distrust estate agents, and that generally speaking the older people are, the lower their trust levels in estate agents. Also, people who read tabloid newspapers are less likely to trust estate agents than broadsheet or mid-market newspapers. But the research reveals that the industry has a huge hill to climb if it wants to gain public trust. Medical miracles Nurses, doctors and teachers all have trust ratings of over 90%, while professors and scientists were trusted by over 80% of the people quizzed and, despite Michael Fish’s famously incorrect storm denial in 1987,…
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Features
Two tribes – profiles of two very different agencies: RH & RW Clutton and Harding Green
Two agencies, one rural and established for 245 years, the other bursting onto the London market with a very different model – both represent the diversity in estate agency that we should all celebrate!
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Latest property news
20% of property sector companies struggling, says insolvency firm
One in five or 25,669 property sector companies are in financial distress according to research by insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor. The company says 6.6% more property companies are in financial distress than the same time last year and that it believes a third of those facing problems now will not be trading in three years’ time. Begbies Traynor includes residential landlords, sales and letting agents and property management companies in its monitoring, which is is based on a ‘red flag alert’ system that tracks when companies face county court judgements or pay bills late. The company says sales and letting agents have been hit the hardest. The number experiencing financial distress increased by 11% this year and that 25% of agents are currently facing financial problems of one kind or another. Begbie Traynor also says London agents are experiencing more financial problems than those outside the capital. Partner Julie Palmer (pictured) told The Daily Telegraph that the property industry has not only had to deal with the effects of the EU Referendum but also what she called “crippling public policy changes, which have rocked the sector to its foundations”. But the company’s research also reveals that the worst may be…
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Latest property news
Trust in agents rises in 2016, national poll reveals
Trust in agents has increased by five percent over the past year, research has revealed. Polling organisation Ipsos MORI in partnership with Mumsnet asked over a thousand people across the UK last month whether they trusted agents to tell the truth. Of these 30% said they did, although 65% said they didn’t. A further 5% said they didn’t know. The research also revealed that only government ministers and politicians are less trusted than agents, and that nurses, doctors, judges, scientists and the police are the most trusted. But hidden in the research are figures that hint at why people rate estate agents more highly than last year, and why overall agents are not trusted. The simple answer is that the more likely a person is to have used a sales or letting agent recently, the less they trust them. And the drop in the number of homes being sold at the moment following the Stamp Duty changes, and Brexit jitters, means fewer people have used an agent recently. And trust levels among members of the public are highest (58%) among those who own their homes outright and who therefore are less likely to have moved recently. “Also, it appears that…
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Latest property news
Letting agents under attack again
“Estate agents are really roofless! We all hate estate agents, now here’s another reason,” says a flatsharing website
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Agencies & People
Can you feel the love?
Public mirth about estate agents is now a national trait, and yet serious research finds most people are happy with the process. So, asks Nigel Lewis, what’s going on?
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Latest property news
Agency comparison site launches
A new agency comparison website that enables sellers in England and Wales to compare the performance of all types of estate agents has been launched. estateagent4me.co.uk, which is owned by UHS, a subsidiary of ULS Technology plc, claims to be the first of its kind to help sellers make an informed choice about which estate agent to sell their property through. Currently available in England and Wales the site will be launching in the rest of the UK shortly. “At present sellers base estate agent performance on instinct, word of mouth and how many boards they see in their local area – this just isn’t enough in today’s marketplace,” said Ben Thompson (right), Managing Director, estateagent4me. Sellers can use estateagent4me to compare estate agents, using a number of different performance criteria, including what the website terms ‘success rate’ based on things like the percentage of properties that the agent has sold, compared to the total houses listed with that agent. Other performance criteria that people will be able to compare are the average time taken to sell a property, how often agents are able to achieve a sale at, or more than, the asking price. Also, the number of properties…
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Agencies & People
Agents taking a battering
Adam Walker says estate agents are like fish and chips – battered and (w)rapped by the press!
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