Have you been made redundant?????
Kangaroo have been approached by a news group to find a estate agent who has been made redundant and is currently looking to get work in agency again.
They want to listen to your situation for a report they are doing into the UK housing market.
Interested? contact me Richard@kangaroojobs.co.uk
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900 Jobs To Go At Taylor Wimpey
Taylor Wimpey has failed in its bid to secure extra funding of £500m, which was needed to see it through the credit crisis.
It is rumoured that the firm's finance director, Peter Johnson, will step down with immediate effect and not wait until the end of the year as expected.
Peter Johnson, Taylor Wimpey
The company's major markets are experiencing a significant downturn, with lower weekly sales rates and lower average selling prices than in recent years.
It is expecting that the UK housing market will remain weak through the second half of 2008, and does not expect there will be any short-term recovery.
The company, which includes Taylor Woodrow and Spanish subsidiary Taylor Woodrow de Espana, currently has 39 regional offices, of which one third will close. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost by the cost-cutting measures.
It is considered that the focus on trimming costs and the cutting of the price of its homes, will boost the firm's sales and improve cashflow.
Reservations of new houses were 45% lower in the 26 weeks to the end of June than they had been during the first half of 2007. During the first half of 2008, 29% of orders were cancelled, compared with 19% a year previously.
The firm announced earlier this week that it expected to write off the value of its land bank and work-in-progress by about £550m in the UK.
Taylor Wimpey was formed in 2007 by the £4.32m merger of Taylor Woodrow Plc and George Wimpey Plc to create the UK's second biggest housebuilder. Peter Johnson, the finance director of Taylor Woodrow, was instrumental in the merger of the two companies.
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The End of Newspaper Advertising????
AN estate agency chain has announced a major reappraisal of their advertising priorities after finding that just three per cent of their viewing and buying activity was generated by local newspaper advertising.
Badger Holdings, with more than 40 offices in the South East of England, mainly under the banner of Townends and Regents estate agencies, have "rationalised" the number of pages of advertising in their local papers and are increasing their online coverage after their research found that was much more lucrative in terms of leads generated.
Earlier this year, Badger, eager to establish the most cost-effective way of reaching their clients, measured all activity within a month and found that that approximately 56 per cent of buyers registered and 41 per cent of all viewings arranged were generated by online activity.
According to the group's marketing manager Kirstie Ayres, that contrasted with just three per cent for traditional local newspaper advertising. The results were collated within a selection of Townends and Regents offices, in London, Surrey and Middlesex.
"Based on the figures, our advertising strategy has changed by rationalising the amount of pages within the local papers," said Ms Ayres.
"We have also changed their focus to communicate and build relationships with both vendors and landlords by replacing some of our conventional property adverts with advertorials.
"Our advertorials are now produced monthly and include a variety of useful and interesting information such as market commentaries, tips for landlords or sellers and other local news.
"Advertising in the local paper has long been a ‘must have' for estate agents. However, the rapid adoption of the internet has radically changed the UK property market meaning that agents have had to adapt their communications strategies accordingly."
Ms Ayres added that Townends and Regents use a number of leading portals including Rightmove, FindaProperty and Primelocation and are receiving increasing numbers of quality leads from the next generation of property portals such as Globrix and Zoomf.
FindaProperty and Primelocation are both owned by the Daily Mail group, while there are substantial interests in other property portals by newspaper and media groups, eager to provide the fullest possible deal for estate agents if newspaper advertising started to wane.
There is evidence elsewhere that Badger Holdings are not on their own in "reappraising" their newspaper advertising needs.
In one Lancashire town, for instance, local agents have shunned their traditional spots in the local weekly to all appear together in a full colour monthly property guide available free from the agency offices.
News from Estate Agency News, July 2008
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THE housing slump appears to be hitting Rightmove's customer base hard.
According to a report from financial analysts Citigroup, the leading estate agency website saw listings from 300 branches fall by the wayside in May alone, as estate agency firms went out of business or cut back their branch networks.
"If that rate continues, Rightmove will lose 2,760 branches this year, with all that implies for profits," said analyst James Target at Citigroup.
He has downgraded his 2009 and 2010 pre-tax profit forecasts to £38 million and £34 million respectively. This compares with a forecast of £41.5 million for 2008 and actual 2007 full year profits of £31.5 million.
City reaction to the report was to mark down Rightmove shares 20p to a two year low of 300p, below its original flotation price.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove.co.uk
Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove , declined to comment on the Citigroup figures. He added: "I don't know how they were arrived at but it is fair to say analysts are marking us down because of the state of the housing market."
But he believed there is a big difference to the 1990s, when there were mass closures among the major corporate estate agents owned by banks and insurance companies. He said: "These institutions tended to take a short term view, but in the current market most big corporates are taking a longer term view and are trying to avoid office closures rather than shedding staff."
Despite some reported streamlining of resources by agents in areas where rivals portals are expanding and diversifying, Mr Shipside also denied that some agents were taking their website business elsewhere, and that Rightmove's numbers had been adversely affected by the rise in monthly fees from £250 to £325 at the start of this year.
Rightmove's June housing report highlights the market's problems as it shows its first ever fall in in housing prices for May and record unsold stock per branch, of 75, compared with 73 in April. There were 15 sellers for every buyer but the length of time property remains on the market has stabilised. That is not necessarily a good sign, according to Mr Shipside, as traditionally the length of time property remains unsold shortens during the spring and summer. But he sees the fall in asking prices as a welcome move in aiding a recovery.
News from Estate Agency News, July 2008
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Humberts Rescued by Chesterton
THE Mercantile Group, co-owners of Chesterton, has come to the rescue of Humberts by paying £3.1 million for most of the business.
Mercantile has bought 34 Humberts offices, 10 franchises, including the Farley and Wellington estate agencies, and the Humberts brand name.
Despite Mercantile's connection with Chesterton, Humberts will continue to trade as a separate business and there are even plans to extend the Humberts franchise, said a spokeswoman for Mercantile.
The Mercantile Group is run by Libyan-born property entrepreneur Salah Mussa and owns 50 per cent of Chesterton.
The other 50 per cent is owned by Vincent Tchenguiz's Consensus Business Group, which also owns 20 per cent of Humberts.
John McLean, Humberts' executive chairman, said: "The sale has secured value for the company while securing continuity of employment for the majority of the company's employees."
However, Humberts have appointed Smith and Williamson as administrators for the remainder of the group, which includes 14 branches. A special shareholder's meeting is to be convened to approve the arrangements.
News from Estate Agency News, July 2008
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