Propertynewshound

A new year dawns - but will 2020 bring new change for the agency industry now that the market appears to have been reinvigorated by the General Election?
The prospect of an end to uncertainty is already monopolising many of the forecasts for 2020, even from sophisticated analysts and commentators: I share everyone’s delight that there appears to be an end in sight to the Brexit melodrama and the inability...

I missed the biggest property story of the week and it’s only scant consolation that almost everyone else seemed to miss it too.
On Wednesday, I was frantically writing about Countrywide’s and Connells’ half-year performances - their results came at 7am and my deadline was the 7.30am newsletter for Estate Agent Today....

There’s nothing new about identifying 10 figures who have helped shape an industry over the past year, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The problem isn’t finding 10 - it’s finding only 10 when there are so many to choose from.
I could, for example, have included Countrywide’s Paul Creffield for effectively steering his troubled ship out of the troubled waters of previous years: Countrywide may seem becalmed now but that it is still at sea is an achievement of sorts....

However mild the weather may have been for most of us, it’s a cold autumn for the online estate agency market - and it promises to be a positively Arctic winter.
The temperature of the sector has plummeted thanks to the closure of Connell’s’ online operation Hatched, the long-term share price fall of Purplebricks, and the high-profile financial problems hurting Emoov....