More Job Losses In The House Building Sector
News that Persimmon has been forced to lay off over 2,000 of the company's workforce this week brings the number of job losses in the sector to over 4,000 in the last seven days. It seems that the more the house builders try to reduce their cost bases the worse the housing market becomes. Such is the severity of the situation that more and more analysts are voicing concerns that this current housing market slump will be worse than the collapse in the 1990s.
Unlike housing slumps before, the fact that both buyers and finance has completely dried up in some areas of the market is causing major concerns. Any buyers who do have finance available are no longer in a rush to buy, with the probability that the property they are looking at will be cheaper next month and the month after. It seems that the more the industry tries to tackle the problem, the more buyers become spooked and hold back from entering the marketplace.
As the number of unsold new homes around the UK also continues to rise, there are real concerns that we may not have seen the worst of this on going property market slump.
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