Estate agents plan to make cutbacks due to financial worries stemming from current market uncertainty

Leading estate agent media provider, Giraffe360, has revealed that 41% of UK estate agents plan to make cutbacks due to financial worries stemming from current market uncertainty, but 73% still believe it’s important to invest in their business during tough times in order to win business.

The survey of 688 UK estate agents asked if they were worried about their business from a financial point of view with the market entering a period of uncertainty.

Just 9% stated they were significantly worried, with a further 28% feeling somewhat worried about what lies ahead. However, a resounding 64% remain confident, stating they were not worried about what’s to come.

That said, 41% do plan to make cutbacks in the coming months, with operational costs ranking as the main area they would look to save money.

Other third party costs, such as expensive property media providers, were also an area they planned to scale back on, as was staff numbers, marketing and advertising spends and office numbers.

But despite many looking to reduce costs, 73% also stated that they believed it was important to invest in tough times in order to win business.

The largest area of focus was creating a good first impression via the property adverts they create for customers online, as well as other physical listing material such as the advert for their branch windows.

Good public relations also ranked as an important tool to stand out from the crowd, along with other grassroots advertising such as leaflets and billboards.

What’s more, a third of estate agents also plan to take on additional tasks in-house in order to cut costs, such as their property media and floorplans, instead of outsourcing them for a higher fee.

Giraffe360 CEO, Mikus Opelts said, “While we’re yet to see the full extent of any market downturn truly materialise, many agents are already planning for what’s to come and this preemptive approach to a cooling market is no doubt the reason that so many remain confident in their business from a financial standpoint.

For the large part, this preparation centres around cutting the fat and streamlining their day to day operations, but at the same time, many also realise that in tough times it’s important to invest in order to win business.

This doesn’t have to be done via expensive radio or TV advertising campaigns and really revolves around going back to basics and creating top quality property media and PR to showcase the true values that a business holds at its core.

Of course, creating high quality property media can be an expensive endeavour when done via a third party provider, not to mention the fact it often comes with a long turnaround time.

However, those that are willing to take on the mantle themselves will find that, with the right equipment, they can produce industry leading photos and floorplans themselves and for a fraction of the cost.”