More than 7,000 UK property agents risk going bust, says study
In the year to May 2018, 153 firms have gone insolvent as agents are hit by online competition and sluggish market
More than 150 estate agency firms went insolvent last year and as many as 7,000 are at risk as high street operators face the triple whammy of online competition, a sagging property market and cuts to letting fees.
A study by accountants Moore Stephens found that 153 estate agency firms went insolvent in the year to May 2018, a small increase on the 148 the year before.
But it found that more than 7,000 estate agents “currently show signs of financial distress”.
Last week, shares in Britain’s biggest estate agent, Countrywide Properties, plunged 25 per cent after it issued its fourth profit warning in eight months and called on shareholders to raise fresh funds to cut its debt.
Countrywide, the company behind Hamptons, Bairstow Eves, Taylors and Gascoigne-Pees, has been hit hard by a downturn in the housing market in London and the southeast, a botched revamp of the business and growing competition from new online firms such as Purplebricks.
Estate agents focused on the Brexit-hit London property market have been among the worst affected. Earlier this year Foxtons reported a 65 per cent fall in profit.