Agency hope springs eternal

Mergers and acquisitions and expansion plan launches are inevitable after a recession, and agency is no exception.

Of course, we’re not out of the recessionary woods yet. The British Chambers of Commerce has forecast that UK GDP will decline by 4.3% by the end of the year before recovering to increase by 1.1% in 2010. That said, this is an improvement on the Chamber’s previous forecast of a 3.8% contraction before an increase of 0.6% next year.

Sentiment in the housing market has improved markedly, with property portals experiencing record traffic. The Digital Property Group claims its portals received 4.6 million house hunter visits last month, while Zoopla claims to have increased the number of agency leads it generates by 51% month-on-month.

Haart is planning to exploit this buyer interest with its £3m expansion programme, which aims to create ‘super branches’ across the UK. The timing of the launch of its first site in Milton Keynes this week is proof of the optimism rife among agents, too. And why shouldn’t it be? London agents are having a ball compared to this time last year, with Hamptons reporting a bumper Q2 and Cluttons having slashed its transaction time to exchange to 4.7 months in the last year.

Meanwhile, Countrywide Residential Lettings remains on the acquisition trail and Bairstow Eves Franchising has expanded, both striving to exploit the growth in the lettings market.

Lack of mortgage funding remains the major stumbling block to a healthy housing market, so it’s good to hear rumblings about a range of new initiatives designed to help aid first-time buyers onto the housing ladder, which we’ll reveal over the next few weeks. All that’s left is for agents to snap up a ticket for The Negotiator’s ‘Thriving, not Surviving’ conference on October 28 to be sure to maximize their profit over the next year.

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