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Estate Agents To Blame For Property Market Slump, Expert Claims

Wed, 17 Sep 2008
Estate agents’ failure to regulate the UK property sector contributed towards their downfall, an industry expert has claimed.

According to property expert Chris Marshall, real estate agents are to blame for the boom in property prices as they encouraged sellers to push prices artificially high. "They fed the boom that led to the bust," he said.

Marshall said he is "surprised" at the number of estate agencies "going out of business" during the tough market conditions, despite 150 estate agent branches being forced to shutdown each week.

He suggested that "such a shake up is usually a good thing" as it cut out "the weaker members of the pack" and allows the others to thrive.

Under new government regulations, set to come into force from October 1st, any estate agent operating in the UK will be legally required to register with the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme.

As a result, buyers and sellers will be given a formal route of redress for any unsolved disputes between them and their estate agent .

Marshall said the new regulations are much needed and criticised the government for taking so long to act.

"The government always claimed that estate agents were regulated under a 1979 Act, but anyone could set up in business without mandatory qualifications or any other permission," he explained.

According to Manchester-based employment law and HR consultancy, Tp people ltd, employees in the property sectors are most at risk of redundancies during the current economic climate.

The firm found that 62 per cent of estate agents are planning to make redundancies in the next six months and 71 per cent halting recruitment programmes for the time being.
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