British estate agent LSL Property Services announced on Thursday in a pre-close trading update that it has closed twelve of its branches since September. The company has also cut 315 full-time jobs due to the slowdown in the property market.
British estate agent LSL Property Services announced on Thursday in a pre-close trading update that it has closed twelve of its branches since September. The company has also cut 315 full-time jobs due to the slowdown in the property market.
LSL Property Services is one of the UK's largest residential estate agents with about 290 Your Move offices and a market capitalisation of £143 mln. The company cut 115 full-time jobs in the surveying division blaming 'significantly reduced activity levels arising from the recent liquidity issues in the banking market.' In the estate agency division, the company cut about 200 full time jobs since September 2007 after it saw operation volumes in the second half of the year dropping by two-thirds, accounting for just a third of a year before. Accordingly, the company also decided the closure of 12 under performing branches.
LSL, which employs 50,000 people, said in a statement that it expects market conditions to remain challenging well into 2008.
In the year ended 31 December 2007 the firm's turnover is estimated to be up by 11%, with surveying turnover up by 21% and estate agency and financial services turnover up by 5%.
