The recent housing market decline has forced The Modern House, an upmarket estate agency, to lay off up to 25% of its workforce in a bid to reduce costs after growing rapidly during the pandemic.
The claim has been made by The Guardian newspaper over the weekend, which says The Modern House has made the cuts owing to the slowdown in the sales market.
The Modern House grew quickly during the pandemic. According to Companies House filings, the London-based estate agency had 26 employees in 2019, shortly before Covid struck. By early 2022 this had climbed to 59, and it is thought the number of employees hit between 75 and 80 earlier this year.
The company’s website appears to confirm that its headcount has recently been cut from 61 to 44 people, with The Guardian claiming that a number of redundancies have been made at the company in recent weeks. EYE has contacted The Modern House for comment.
The Modern House, set up in 2005 by two friends, Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd, is one of a number of estate agencies laying off workers or changing hands as rising interest rates and the cost of living crisis squeeze the sector and fuel worries about a possible house price crash.
Knight Frank recently initiated a redundancy consultation process with staff and had indicated that up to 3% of roles were at risk.
Knight Frank plans mass job cuts amid downturn in UK housing market
A real shame and I’m sure we all agree, a horrible story.
I am hearing lots of stories of possible redundancies across our sector. Many agents buried their head in the sand and they’ve thought their pipeline will carry them through. Looking at some
of our competitors stock levels – I fear they are doomed. They have literally no stock.
Their pipelines will be gone in 4 months…then what will they do?! Poor business.
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I agree
I have also noticed the few properties agents do have for sale are not being marketed in new innovative ways. The entire property market has changed and so must the marketing strategy. No one can magic up buyers but equally agents can and should be doing more to advertise the properties they have for sale (social media, foreign buyer websites etc). Our local agent has stopped using Rightmove due to the cost but failed to tell their customer base. That is poor management.
As for their window display well quite frankly it’s a disgrace. Rather than showcasing the five properties they have for sale their window is full of ads for properties thet have sold or are under offer. One property was sold by them 2 years ago. Why they still have it taking up valuable advertising space is beyond me.
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Silver lining: bin rightmove
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Its an interesting time for sure.
Exceptional people by comparison are worth their weight in Gold.
Non fee earning middle management who fail to make the pace are under great pressure.
What I am very surprised at TBH is some of the largest agents haven’t yet gone out en mass and trimmed the branch network especially where duplications exist . Very strange and strategically poor decision making.
Even Foxtons huge investments (we all heard the champagne corks popping) via the latest results published in ref to more EA staff makes you wonder -sounds good /looks good-but what about the bottom line especially H1 2024.
Of course the market may bounce back big time in 2024 ?
Anyone on this board seen /heard of anything -maybe some thing all together more radical in the pipeline ?
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****** Hell Little Fella. Why has everything got to revert back to a dig at Connells. Get over it Tim. Focus on the substantial loses Spicerhaart are making and don’t worry about what other people are doing little man. You’re starting to embarrass yourself.
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