The streets of London are paved with … estate agents.
Despite a shortage of instructions, over the last 12 months a new estate agency branch opened once every 1.6 days.
There are now almost 2,900 agents in London – an average of 90 in each of the 322 boroughs and an overall increase of 8.3%.
A third of London boroughs (11 out of the 32) now have over 100 agency branches each.
The City of Westminster has had the biggest rise in agent numbers, going from 179 to 228, an increase of 27.4%.
In Islington, the number of high street agents went up by 26.1% from 88 to 111.
Only in Enfield was there a fall – of 6.5% from 92 to 86 – in the number of agents’ branches over the last year.
While Westminster has the largest number of estate agents, others with high numbers include Wandsworth with 160, Kensington & Chelsea with 137, Tower Hamlets with 135 and Camden with 120.
All the figures compare last February’s findings with this month’s, with the research done for online agent HouseSimple.
CEO Alex Gosling said: “Estate agents have been making hay while the sun shines, opening more than 200 new offices in just 12 months.
“It’s not surprising, when just one office can make hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees in a year.
“London high streets are literally paved with property gold.
“It’s impossible to walk down a local high street in London now without passing an estate agent’s window, but Londoners will still be surprised to know there are almost 3,000 estate agents in the capital.
“It’s a staggering number, particularly when you consider most people now start their property searches online, and may never actually venture into a high street agent’s office.”
The research was done using Rightmove numbers of sales agents.
Comments (7)
Nice Survey. It Make hard to believe but fact is London property value increasing than rest of the country in UK.
So much for the call centre listing revolution killing off the High St agents
and in a couple of years time there will probably be 6000 agents in Central London if the industry is not properly regulated.
Agree with that!
What did Douglas Adams say about estate agents and solicitors?
(Hitchhikers guide to…)
When I first read it I was already in the biz but didn’t mind too much then. But with 3,000 just in London well you have ask yourself : maybe he had a point ? And I am still in the biz but no longer in London.
“There are now almost 2,900 agents in London – an average of 90 in each of the 322 boroughs and an overall increase of 8.3%”
Come the call-centre agent revolution this would be a fixed rate far below the disgraceful 8.3 to 15% that traditional agents are expanding by – ahem
Year to October 2015 … 107,210 properties sold (and completed) in Greater London .. that’s only 36.96 properties per agent per year .. wow! … and when you consider there were a lot less agents last decade …in 2002 .. 164,700 properties were sold in London … getting stock is a killer … a real challenge