One-third of estate agents to close
At least a third of the UK's estate agents currently in business are set to have closed by the end of the year, the UK's largest property agent network has predicted. Robin King, director of Movewithus, said that the slowdown in the property sector would result in the number of estate agents in operation falling by at least 4,000 from the current figure of 12,000. He told the Times: "People may not like estate agents, but if they are doing well, everyone else is too. If no one is buying and selling, it is a sign that no one is making any money."Mr King based his projections on the network's own data which shows that sales through Movewithus has fallen by between 30 per cent and 50 per cent since last year. Meanwhile, further evidence of the tough conditions ahead for estate agents were born out by statistics from the National Association of Estate Agents, which showed that the number of properties for sale fell from 83 to 74 between January and February this year.
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