Estate agents not hiring because of property slump
Sunday January 20 2008
ESTATE agents have joined the property slowdown's job casualty list, with many firms choosing not to hire new staff in the ongoing slump.
Among those to confirm that they are not actively recruiting new staff for their residential divisions are Sherry FitzGerald and Douglas New Good (DNG). The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV), which represents auctioneers, said temporary and seasonal staff were among those affected.
"New staff are not being taken on," said Fintan McNamara, chief executive of the IPAV. "People who are employed on a short-term basis are being let go."
The dramatic fall in house sales over the last year has forced many estate agents to adopt survival strategies.
"The volume of sales transactions for the Dublin residential market in 2007 could be down as much as 50 per cent on 2006," said Robert Ganly, partner with global property consultants, Knight Frank.
"Some firms have reduced staff quite considerably. There certainly have been estate agents that have gone out of business over the last year.
"The casualties are more likely to be in medium and large estate agents that have expanded too rapidly and whose business is mainly residential."
DNG Residential shed about a tenth of its staff early last year. About six staff were made redundant, while another six chose to leave, according to Paul Murgatroyd, economist with DNG.
"Transaction levels are well below what a lot of agents were used to," he said. "We'd need to see a growth in transactions to warrant taking on additional staff."
A spokeswoman for Sherry FitzGerald said that while it would replace any existing staff who left, the company was not actively increasing staff numbers.
The managing director of Gunne Residential, Declan Cassidy, said that many estate agents were choosing not to hire administrative staff, instead preferring to have mainly sales staff in offices.
"We are not taking on people now who are just starting out in the business," he said.
- Louise McBride
