Thousands of estate agents to lose jobs

By Andrew Hough

LONDON (Reuters) - Almost 15,000 real estate agents in Britain will lose their jobs over the next two years as a result of the global credit crunch, a think-tank said on Friday.

Estate agents were part of an estimated 40,000 people working in Britain's business services sector, including accountants and consultants, who are predicted to lose their jobs, the Centre for Economics and Business Research found.

The think-tank said the loss of estate agents was equivalent of the sector losing about five percent of its workforce.

Predicting the sector will have a "tough couple of years", the CEBR said that, for the first time in more than seven years, it would experience a decrease in total employment.

Experts said also under threat as result of the faltering local economy were conveyancing lawyers and architects.

The prediction came in a week when data from the Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, showed house prices overall fell a larger-than-expected 2.4 percent in May.

One of the study's authors, Jorg Radeke, said in a statement the real estate industry was "likely to find the next 12 months particularly tough and there will be extensive job cuts".

Managing CEBR economist, John Ward, said the slowdown had been led by the housing and financial sectors, "so estate agents and architects will be among the first to suffer".