Foxtons battered by housing downturn

One of London’s best known estate agents has swung into a full year loss of £17.2 million against a profit in 2017 of £6.5 million.

The news comes before the ban on tenant fees hits. Foxtons are infamous for their fees.

Strangely the BBC again neglected to mention the ban on fees (again) in their coverage. They seem resolute in not mentioning the incoming ban. All very odd.

Another thing I’ve noticed about the BBC is how they usually report a number which shows house prices growing – or at least the one showing the smallest fall. They flip between reporting monthly and annual most prominently. For a long, long time they reported monthly figures from Halifax, Nationwide etc which showed growth. When growth halted and monthly numbers fell they switched to reporting annual numbers which were higher as falls hadn’t fed through. Keep an eye out for it – they’ve done it again today with Nationwide.

Anyway, back to Foxtons and the company state no more branch closures are planned after a number shut in recent months. Maybe if Foxtons were 10% more Foxtons* things wouldn’t be as bad for them? Then, again, probably not.

*Watch the newest Partridge episode. Foxtons are the new Lexus. What’s the plural of Foxtons I wonder?