High street agent numbers drop in London boroughs

"Established high street agents might be able to absorb a slowdown in sales..."

However, according to the data, across all boroughs the number of high street estate agents has increased this year, albeit by just 0.5% to close to 2,900. Westminster alone has 8.3% of all agent offices in London, with 241, and more than a third of boroughs now have more than 100 high street agents each.

HouseSimple figures reveal that Barking & Dagenham and Southwark have both seen the number of high street agents rise by 10.7% this year. Meanwhile Barnet has seen estate agent numbers fall by 7.2% and Richmond has seen the number of offices fall by 5.9%.

The following table look at the number of estate agents in each London borough today, compared to the start of 2016:

Agents on the high street

Walthamstow has the highest concentration of estate agents within a quarter of a mile of a main tube station, with a total of 21. Canary Wharf has 19.

Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate, Housesimple.com, had this to say: “Last year saw an explosion of high estate agent offices opening across London hoping to take advantage of a booming property market, and many would say, blighting our high streets. But after a strong start to 2016, the market has cooled, with stamp duty changes hitting super prime sales and the EU Referendum and US Election result putting some doubt in buyers’ minds.

Established high street agents might be able to absorb a slowdown in sales, but for the opportunist agents who open to take advantage of a booming market, they quite often disappear from the high street as quickly as they arrive. And many local residents will probably say that’s not altogether a bad thing, because the dramatic rise in agent offices has already homogenized many local high streets.

On the other hand, over the last twelve months we’ve seen a 54% surge in new listings as customers increasingly realise the savings they can make by selling online.”