Estate agents suffer in slowdown

Upmarket estate agent Chesterton has fallen victim to London's property slowdown.

The 200-year-old firm, one of the best known names in the industry, called in the receivers after four years of losses.

The company employs 700 people in London and has 36 branches dealing with commercial and residential property. Its residential business is mostly at the high end of the London market, dealing typically with sales of homes costing more than ?500,000.

Chesterton has been struggling since at least 2001 when the top end of the property market in the capital slumped after the stock market collapse and the September 11 attacks.

It has also been hit by a bitter boardroom and legal dispute after two of its senior executives were sacked in 2003.

The collapse is the second major shake-up in the estate agency industry in recent weeks. Last month, Peter Rollings, the head of London's biggest estate agents Foxtons, quit to set up a rival agency.

Hundreds of estate agents have lost their jobs because of the sudden slowdown in house sales.

Receiver Nigel Morrison of Grant Thornton said: "Chesterton has been making significant losses over the past few years."

Some 300 staff have already been made redundant by the receivers on the commercial side.

Chesterton was founded in 1805 by an uncle of the writer GK Chesterton.