Jones Lang LaSalle announces redundancies

Another British property consultant, Jones Lang LaSalle, announced the fact that it would be making redundancies this year. A spokesman stated:

In light of the current challenging financial and economic climate, the company has taken the difficult but necessary decision to make 60 to 80 redundancies affecting employees based in England.

No surprise really, and according to homemove back in April, a third of British estate agents could be forced to close.

As the number of house sales plummet, around 30% of British estate agents could be closing their doors for good.

The closures are a direct consequence of the credit squeeze, which experts predict will result in approximately 45,000 repossessions, 20,000 job losses in the City and an increase in mortgage repayments for millions of homeowners.

Halifax are closing 53 branches, with around 100 job losses, after predicting a 20% fall in value over the next 18 months.

Some would say (myself included) that the current crop of redundancies and closures amongst British estate agents is largely self-inflicted. On my last visit to the UK just 2 years ago, after a ten-year-absence, I was horrified to discover that British high streets had largely been taken over by estate agents. Barely a shop remained that was not an estate agents, peppered with the occasional travel agency. And mark my words, they will be the next to go – regardless of the cost of aviation fuel.

The property boom in the UK was not based on any sort of reality. Forcing prices up to a point where it had become almost impossible for a first-time-buyer to enter the market was bound to have consequences. And who was doing the forcing? Mr. Jones Lang LaSalle et all, that’s who.

Although, with the estate agents and travel agents gone, all that will be left is the charity shops.

The British government, adhering to the old agade, “The best time to shut the barn door is after the horse has bolted,” have decided that estate agents in the UK now need some regulation and from October 1st, it will be a legal requirement for any estate agent operating in the UK to register with the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme. The new regulations will give buyers and sellers a formal route of redress for any unsolved disputes between them and their estate agent. Although being persuaded to pay 40% more than a current valuation is unlikely to give one any redress.

Quite honestly, I don’t see the point of this new regulation. According to Christopher Hamer, the Ombudsman in question,

My role is to provide fair and reasonable resolutions to disputes between members of the public and estate agents who are members of the OEA or who have registered with the OEA under the OFT Approved Estate Agents Redress Scheme. I can make awards of compensation for financial loss and/or aggravation, distress and inconvenience, where I feel that is appropriate. The service is free of charge for the public.

I am not a regulator or consumer guardian.

So when your house takes a dip in value, he is unlikely to have any sympathy, or make any awards. Although a big finger needs pointing at the estate agencies, surely the consumer also has some responsibility here. If you were daft enough to believe a two-bedroomed flat in Islington was worth three million quid…….