Countrywide Estate agents to close

sarkin

Countrywide, the UK's biggest chain of estate agents, plans to shut some of its branches after being hit by a spate of cancelled sales

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6396773&subject=companies&action=article

I work in the remortgage market so hopefully this will not effect me to much. Cant speak for brokers who get most of thier business from estate agents. If Countrywide are feeling the pinch, I think some of the smaller estate agents are going struggle to keep thier heads above water.

lypsey

Sarkin

I wish you the best of luck , but I fear that lots of EA's are going to fold, along with a lot of mortgage brokers and bankers

First to go will be 5000 staff at Northern Rock , their fate is sealed

This is very sad but I am sure will happen

sarkin

I work from home and have low overheads so hopefully can weather the storm. As long as people have some equity I will be able to do the mortgage. But the brokers who only deal in purchase work are going to be in big trouble. If they try and reposition for the remortgage market they are going to find it very crowded already.

tr3mor

sarkin wrote: »

Countrywide, the UK's biggest chain of estate agents, plans to shut some of its branches after being hit by a spate of cancelled sales.

Having suffered Countrywide's customer service all I can say is that it couldn't happen to a nicer company!

:beer:

Doozergirl

It makes sense that a company which can have several branches, under different names, in the same town, should tighten their belts. I'd rather have one convincing outfit than three medicore ones relying on probability that people are likely to walk into one of their shops. Whether they can pull 'a convincing outfit' off remains to be seen.

I'd like to think it was because we've told everyone that they are rubbish, but I doubt it!

Strapped

I know of one branch in a town in the SE (don't want to say exactly where!) which has been under threat for about two years and is now finally closing. I know this 'cos I worked for an outfit over the road and we had our eye on their premises! (PS That was an independent, and is going from strength to strength, perhaps there is something to be said for good personal service after all. But yes, no doubt lean times are ahead.)