Elegy for Estate Agents

The Independent reports that “up to 1,800 estate agents may go bust by the end of the year unless lenders ease up their squeeze on new mortgages, as fears grow that the UK is heading for a full-scale housing crash, with price falls of up to a fifth.”

Maybe the warm weather has dulled my sense of sympathy, but I cannot help thinking that this will be good news for the housing sector as a whole. The property boom has lasted long enough for estate agents to make plenty of money and the best ones should have little difficulty surviving - the true test of an estate agent is the deal that they can provide for the home-seller during difficult times. A phase of Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ will be no bad thing.  Rosie Millard writes in the Sunday Times:

“Well, there’s a silver lining in that somewhere. With nobody selling any property — at least not for about another five years — all the estate agencies will go out of business, which means high streets up and down the country will become a bit more interesting, as they will start having proper shops on them again. Except that nobody’s going to have any money to spend in them, so they will all go bust too.”

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Migration and the UK Economy [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Measuring Inflation in the UK [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Poverty and Inequality and Market Failure [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Empty Housing and Economic Efficiency [15 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
Starter Video: The Slums of Manilla [11 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Chinese inward investment in the London property market [12 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Bubble [4 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Mortgage Lending and Mortgage Rates [14 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: Germany leads Euro Zone revival [25 Feb 2011]
Combining monetary and fiscal policy to curb inflation in China [16 Feb 2011]
David Smith on Shifting Sands in the Global Economy [8 Feb 2011]
Economics Q&A: Will the rise in VAT harm the UK’s economic performance? [17 Jan 2011]
EU Economics: EU Economy in Charts Jan 2011 [29 Dec 2010]
Extend and Enrich with EconoMax [29 Oct 2010]
Beware the return of the Gazunderer [16 Oct 2010]
Housing market and negative equity [31 Aug 2010]
Reasons to fear a jobless recovery [11 Aug 2010]
Consumer sentiment weakens as double dip looms [2 Aug 2010]
China’s housing market - fantastic interactive resource [7 Jun 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
AS Macro Revision: Consumer Borrowing [30 May 2010]
Euro Land and Optimal Currency Areas - A Valentine’s Day Massacre [29 May 2010]
Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
Two examples of government failure [20 May 2010]
UK inflation hits 17-month high [18 May 2010]
RES Essay Competition: Preventing Housing Bubbles [12 Apr 2010]
Paris punishes the purse strings [12 Mar 2010]
50-year decline in housing affordability [20 Jan 2010]
Is monetary policy becoming less effective? [16 Dec 2009]
New figures show extent of wealth inequality in the UK [11 Dec 2009]
Reasons to expect a Nike Swoosh recovery [13 Nov 2009]
Gloomy summary [13 Oct 2009]
Pain in Spain - on the brink of depression [26 Sep 2009]
The Wealth Effect [12 Sep 2009]
What happens when the hose pipe is turned off? [23 Aug 2009]
Tentative signs of a pulse in the housing market [30 Jul 2009]
Economics Snapshot - EU Migrants in the UK Labour Market [26 Jul 2009]
Housing the global economic crisis [23 Jul 2009]
Trying to turn the tide of deforestation [10 Jul 2009]
Revision - External Shocks [24 May 2009]
BBC Video: Ireland in Recession [24 May 2009]
Revision: Deflation in Residential and Commercial Property [14 May 2009]
Policy Failure - Rising Inequality [10 May 2009]
Revision: Consumer Borrowing [4 May 2009]
After the storm [3 May 2009]
Wimbledon serves up £55m in debenture sales [4 Apr 2009]
Revision presentation - UK Housing Market 2009 [25 Mar 2009]
Bubble Behaviour [22 Mar 2009]
Spanish Economy - After the Fiesta [20 Feb 2009]
Interest rates are no longer the key story [8 Jan 2009]
Homeowners step away from equity loans [1 Jan 2009]
Barclays Boss says housing downturn is only half done [16 Dec 2008]
Buyers desert the property market - with good reason [30 Oct 2008]
Budgeting for expansion [27 Oct 2008]
Negative equity - why is it a problem? [20 Oct 2008]
Savings and Hot Money - Shelters from the Storm [5 Oct 2008]
Mortgage Market - Closed for Business [29 Sep 2008]
Housing - a buyers market [27 Sep 2008]
Housing market activity - some interesting data [26 Sep 2008]
Rock fall was symptom of wider malaise [13 Sep 2008]
Property woes deepen [28 Aug 2008]
Shaking foundations [26 Aug 2008]
How best to avoid the ‘D-words’ [26 Aug 2008]
Out of pocket? Students face much higher inflation. [21 Aug 2008]
Sharp fall in London property “asking prices” [18 Aug 2008]
Winners and losers from the housing crash [11 Aug 2008]
Telling it like it is [7 Aug 2008]
Moscow coffee had better be good! [24 Jul 2008]
Bricomortis [21 Jul 2008]
Poverty Trap worsens [18 Jul 2008]
15 Charts on the UK Economy to Kickstart Lessons in September 08 [14 Jul 2008]
The Great Depression? [11 Jul 2008]
Housing slump and negative multiplier effects [11 Jul 2008]
UK house prices down 2% in June [10 Jul 2008]
The Cracks are Widening [6 Jul 2008]
Denmark the first to enter recession - form an orderly queue please [3 Jul 2008]
My Domain? [27 Jun 2008]
The Squeeze is on! [24 Jun 2008]
Migration and the UK housing market [3 Jun 2008]
Back to the 1990s [29 May 2008]
Lower house prices and the route to happiness [26 May 2008]
House prices down, rents up [20 May 2008]
Growing demand for social housing [19 May 2008]
Mervyn faces the Music [14 May 2008]
Property - then and now [9 May 2008]
Developments in the housing market [27 Apr 2008]

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