Chiswick Estate Agent Closures Continue

Faron Sutaria on Turnham Green Terrace latest to go

The spate of closures of estate agents in Chiswick looks set to continue with the departure of long-established Faron Sutaria.

Earlier in the month Haus Properties had suddenly shut its branch on Chiswick High Road and further consolidation in the area is predicted by some local experts.

Faron Sutaria had been at this location for over twenty years. Having been a branch of an independent agency with its head office in Notting Hill it was recently incorporated into the Countrywide national chain of agents. This organisation also owns John D. Wood and Hamptons which have offices a short walk away from the Faron's branch to be closed. Countrywide are the UK's largest estate agency business with over 11,000 employees and 1,500 offices operating under 47 different brands.

A spokesperson for Countrywide told us, "Faron Sutaria are working ever-more closely with John D Wood & Co., already part of the same company. They will be fully merging in the next few weeks with staff transferring across and will be combining on the one site in Chiswick under the John D Wood & Co. branding. There will be double the number of sales brokers selling vendors properties as a result, making John D Wood & Co. the market leader by a long way in market share of both available properties and flats & houses sold in Chiswick."

Christian Harper of HarperFinn who predicted estate agent closures on Turnham Green Terrace earlier this year said, "Further to Haus leaving Chiswick last week, today's announcement does nothing but further support the view that estate agency in the 21st century is all about Rightmove and Zoopla and not about shops with plasma screens.

"To be honest I am absolutely shocked that one company (Countrywide) would feel the need to have three shops on Turnham Green Terrace. It just shows you how much profit can be made from selling and letting houses!

"Technology will always win over tradition especially when technology means that clients don't have to pay over £20,000 to sell an average Chiswick terraced house….time to give the high street back to the butcher, baker and candlestick maker!"

Earlier in the week Countrywide issued a profits warning after seeing earnings fall by 25% in the first half of the year. The following day it was announced that profits at Foxtons fell by 42% in the first six months of the year with the estate agent warning that the downturn in London's housing market would continue for the rest of 2016 at least.

July 30, 2016