This is a sad day indeed. Poor estate agents. Who will we now pay are whopping 1.5% fees to!!!!???? Something must be done....

Robin Laundon, London, UK

Estate Agents are always blamed for rising house prices - but I have never met a vendor who wanted to accept LESS than their neighbour! As for Solicitors and Surveyors being more deserved of higher fees, most Surveyors spend less than 15 minutes in a property when conducting a mortgage valuation and then phone-up estate agents for advice on the valuation. Solicitors are responsible for 90% of the delays in the conveyancing process as a way of increasing their fee with unnecessary charges.
Saying that ALL estate Agents offer a bad service is as pathetic as saying that ALL Police Officers are racists, All Social Workers are Loony Lefties and ALL Journalists are alcoholics - it's very easy to stereotype. Remember, that many of those people who have lost their jobs have families, mortgages and lives away from their professional career.

Steve, Staines, Middlesex

My heart bleeds for them. No it really does, honestly.

Dave Gedge, London,

All of you rightly or wrongly deriding the Estate Agency Industry might now find that the only way you will find a buyer for your property is through the services of a good estate agent. Homeowners always have a choice to manage the sale themselves but most know that using an agent will secure them the best price for their property especially in a tough market.Prices might fall short term but don't expect it to be too long before pent up demand reverses the situation.

Robert, London, UK

On the local grapevine I hear that one Northampton Estate Agent has already let 25 staff go !

Laura K, Northampton,

Over the last 40 odd years prices have risen by 5000%, on average the market doubles every 12 and will continue to do so, I've made 10% on my house in the last 5 months alone. If we have a house price crash we will see rising unemployment and all the negative knock on effects, so Andrew from Walthamstow, be careful what you wish for, this will benefit no-one.

Estate agents are a necessary evil, as we need them to continue to keep the property market bouyant. Personally I don't think there will be a price crash: compared to the crash in the early 90's unemployment is much lower, prices have been rising sustainably, the economy is showing stable growth, earnings compared to mortgage payments are far better and interest rates are much lower, AND GOING DOWN!

For those who are too busy complaining, it'll be you who loses out when prices are another 10% higher by the end of the year. Take advantage of desperate EA's while you can and try and haggle on prices!

Nick, Wimbledon, UK

Everyone, please put your hands together and join me in offering a prayer for all those poor estate agents out there. They need our help.

Alice Harper, Norwich,

Estate Agents don't do much other than value your house and collect their commission. I have seen hardly any of them bothering to show houses themselves, always asking the seller.
And I agree that Solicitors and Surveyors should deserve more money due to their level of responsibility and the skill required, but unfortunately, it's those ripoff estate agents who make most of the money and for hardly any work.
I think it would be so much better if people used agents to value their house and then sold it themselves using existing websites. It would hardly make a difference in most cases. I promise that good properties sell themselves and bad properties are not helped by agents. The good agent would tell if it's worth doing anything to add value, or something that will put people off. But not sure they do so.

David, Tunbridge Wells, UK

Governments have never bothered about manufacturing jobs ,why should they bother about estate agents?They have enjoyed 10 years of making money by inflating house prices and, contributing to the £1.4 trillion debt mountain.Now the country is in a position whereby the economy cannot grow without inflation,largely due to the fact that many people have taken on mortgages they carn't afford.If the BOE cut rates as many expect,the base rate could be below the RPI by the end of this year.Is having the need for negative interest rates an indication of a strong economy?

stephen hulton, eure, france

It will make my day to see estate agents unemployed and unemployable.

Commission rates are even higher here than in the UK.

Kenneth, Auckland, New Zealand

For anyone interested in the composition of sales. Look at page 13 of the Land Registry report....

There was a %age change collapse in properties in the sample valued at under 250k, while there was a %age change surge in properties valued at over 1mn.

Even including for the fact that the cheaper properties still dominate the sample in terms of number, this still implies prices were dragged up by the rich (although, according to another story released today on London, Prime property there has now also started falling...this has yet to be captured by the Registry).

Add in the fact that most of these high value houses will have been in London and the South east, and the upward AVERAGE %age change (the one impacting the majority of us) in value for the Greater London has been even more distorted than the national figures.

Nick, Slough,

Looks rather familar did this not happen in the last property crash?

david barker, maidstone,

Over the previous few years I have been treated like dirt every time I either phoned or walked in to an Estate Agent.

They didn’t care for my business due to the fact they were to busy assisting buy-to-let investors price me out of the market.

Now when I called them, only to offer 30% less than the asking prices on various properties, they treat me with more respect.

It’s now me who laughs down then phone at them during our conversations.

Prudent Savers and FTB that are going to be the key to pulling them back out of this mess. I bet they wish they hadn’t bit the hand that will eventually be feeding them.

They won’t be getting a penny of my hard earned money until they offer me a house for its actual value, instead of their self inflated delusional value…

I have no sympathy.

Andy Hawk, Liverpool, UK

Lay -offs in the industry started two months ago from Estate Agents that could see much more from the grass root level than the BoE from the ivory tower with no windows. How funny it is that some can see more of what is going on from far away than the researchers at The Times can who are on the ground.

Paul, London, Canada

Hear Hear! Good riddance indeed! And lets hope the BTL are another casualty!

sophie, norfolk,

No flood of sympathetic responses as yet. Estate agents have been happy to play their part in creating an unsustainable property bubble and at the height of the buying frenzy to collect obscene amounts of commission for, often, very little work. To add to the insult, 'proper' professional such as solicitors and surveyors who have undergone long and specialist training were typically earning a fraction of the amount secured by estate agants - who need absolutely no qualifications, are bound by no compulsory professional ethics etc. After a virtually unprecedented period of booming property sales any half sensible agent will have plenty of cash squirreled away to see him/her through the hard times ahead. For those who blew it all on the high life, tough luck.

Clive, Chichester, UK

Good riddance to these sharks. Enjoyed 10 years of rampent house price rises , now it's payback.
EAs have played their part in this unsustainable madness.
First the number of transactions drop, next come real* price drops.

*Look to 30%

Andrew, Walthamstow, UK