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Estate agents quit paid for property portals as job cuts bite

Estate agency Cluttons is one of the latest to cut jobs. The company, which employs more than 600 people across the country, is making 4% of its staff redundant as it cuts costs.

Most jobs will go in the company's commercial transactions teams in regional offices although some staff in London will face redundancy.

The redundancies are the latest in a string of job cuts being made by property firms.

Last month Savills announced it would be making redundancies, mostly from its residential division, but has not indicated how many.

DTZ has announced it is axing 40 from its work force and CB Richard Ellis has made a series of cuts from regional offices.

Dreweatt Neate, the sizeable independent firm in the south of England, has launched a consultation which is likely to end in the closure of three offices. The firm, established almost 250 years ago, is looking to shut up shop in Wantage, Hungerford and Devizes.

Another sign of the downturn is the number of agents quitting the paid for on-line property portal Rightmove. A total of 1,300 estate agency offices have left in the last year, the portal has revealed.

Commercial director Miles Shipside said that the departures were because of branch closures or business failure. But although many were leaving others were joining, he said.

'We have had 800 new estate agents joining in the same period so the net loss is about 500. Our new members are either start-ups or larger firms finally deciding they really had to be on our site,' he said.

Shipside warned that it is inevitable that more estate agents will close: 'A big test for them is whether they can hold on until spring 2009, which is the earliest time anyone thinks the market might pick up. It's a long time to wait, though, if you have no money coming in so I think there could well be further attrition and of course there might be no pick-up next spring,' he added.

A poll conducted by Estate Agent Today indicates that estate agents are rejecting paid for portals. For example, 75.7% said they would not renew with Rightmove. They are moving to free portals like Property Live, a new site set up by the National Association of Estate Agents.

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