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3,000 estate agents face the chop as fewer first-time buyers invest in property

6 December 2004

A shortage of first-time buyers on the UK property market could lead to the loss of almost 3,000 estate agent jobs, housing experts have warned.

The predicted cull follows a dramatic fall in the amount of mortgage lending, which could lead to ten per cent of the total UK property selling workforce becoming unemployed.

Housing experts predict cuts to the 30,000-strong workforce are likely to be the biggest since the housing crash in the early 1990s.

Although UK house prices have been stable recently, the majority of indicators suggest they will grow more slowly or even decline in 2005.

Experts indicate that such a drop in the market will mean less activity for the estate agent and a knock-on effect of less demand for full-time positions.

"Jobs would go as the housing market cools - especially outside the London, in regions where there is no pressure on supply," said Saxon Brettell of researcher firm, Cambridge Econometrics.

"None of this bodes well for estate agents."

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