Estate agents – an endangered species

Up to 15,000 estate agents could lose their jobs this year due to the sagging housing market, research has suggested.

 

Estate agents are most vulnerable to a sharp slowdown in activity in business services, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has concluded.

It believes that up to 40,000 jobs could be lost in the sector as a whole, with lawyers, accountants, architects and marketing professionals affected. The service sector shrank in May for the first time in five years.

 

‘Uncertainty’

Rising energy and transport costs are hurting businesses, undermining confidence in future prospects, the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply reported on Thursday. Most leading analysts are predicting falls in house prices this year, with the most pessimistic forecasters expecting a double-digit drop in average prices.

This uncertainty, combined with the rise in the cost of mortgages, has significantly reduced the number of new mortgage approvals and is subduing the number of completed sales.

 

CEBR said it expected the value of activity in the housing sector to fall 3% this year and that 5% of those working in the industry could lose their jobs.  It predicts total employment in the real estate sector will fall from 292,000 to 277,000.

 

“Estate agents and others involved in managing real estate are likely to find the next 12 months particularly tough and there will be extensive job cuts,” said the CEBR’s Jorg Radeke.

 

But CEBR expects the sector to start to recover next year although it argues that employment will not return to 2007 levels until 2011. “As real estate is among the first to face the economic downturn, it will also be among the first to benefit from a future economic upturn,” Mr. Radeke added.

 

 

 

 

British expats suffer technical aches

Unnecessary gadgets are cluttering up homes in the sun.

An increasing number of Brits take electronics products overseas that are incompatible with foreign radio frequencies, manufacturer programming and electrical power.

The latest stats from the Office of National Statistics show that up to 4,000 Brits are packing their bags and heading overseas every week, with more than a quarter going to Spain and France.

Digital radios have been cited as one of the biggest headaches, as only 20% of radio stations in France and Spain, and just 5% in Italy, transmit at a suitable frequency.

Many UK televisions have also found a new lease of life as a doorstop, because single tuner functions prevent most television sets which are more than five years old from picking up foreign stations.

“Advances in technologies are making products smaller and lighter and more transportable, but it does not necessarily mean they will all work abroad,” said Currys electrical engineer John Wright.

“People who are purchasing products to take abroad should always check with the manufacturer or experts in store to make sure they are not left disappointed.”

To help combat the problem, Currys is offering tips to travellers taking tech goods overseas:

·         There are 13 different types of plugs around the world so take plenty of adaptors.

·         Use a converter with electrical products such as hair dryers, steam irons, shavers and toothbrushes.

·         Use a transformer with electronic products such as radios, CD or DVD players, computers, fax machines and answering machines.

·         If you’re purchasing a new TV, make sure it is a multi-tuner as TVs purchased before 2003 will not work abroad.

·         Digital radios purchased in the UK will only work to an audio quality of 128Kbps.

·         A country’s voltage is always written on its light bulbs.