From This is Money:
The collapse of the housing market has forced Jonathan Vandermolen, founder of Blenheim Bishop, to make 10 staff redundant and put his offices on the market.
Mr Vandermolen said: ‘I couldn’t make it work. Income from new homes was 75% down on the previous year and my view of that market is not good long-term.’
The closure of Blenheim Bishop’s sales side ? the firm will continue letting properties ? comes as estate agents face the worst market conditions in years. Household names like Kinleigh, Folkard and Hayward are shutting formerly busy London offices.
Private equity group BC Partners, which paid £390m for Foxtons in May 2007, has been forced to call in banking advisers NM Rothschild to tackle its ‘debt mountain’. Branch closures have not been ruled out.
Savills will announce its figures tomorrow and they are expected to make grim reading. The estate agency has already reduced its advertising budget and made redundancies among its 4,000 London employees.
Two years a…
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