Leading real estate agency to lay off 13 workers

THE PROPERTY slowdown forced another leading real estate agency to cut jobs yesterday.

Multinational property company CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) confirmed to The Irish Times that it laid off 13 of its 140 staff yesterday.

Managing director Guy Hollis said the cuts were across the board, and blamed the slowing property market.

"It's the slowdown in the transactions side of our business. It's very unfortunate, they are all good people, but it's something that we needed to do," Mr Hollis said.

The workers were all full-time employees of CBRE's Irish operation. Mr Hollis made it clear that the company expects the slowdown to persist.

"We would not have done it if we thought that this was just going to last for three months," he said. "It could go on for six to 12 months. This is a result of global conditions and what's happened in banking.

"It's not just Ireland that's suffering, this is happening right across Europe and the US, and even in Asia."

However, he added that a build-up in negative sentiment would not help the market once the recovery kicks in.

"People are tending to jump on the negative things, but there are positive things happening out there too," he said.

CBRE is a global commercial real estate firm with 350 offices spread around 58 countries.

Its Irish office is the latest to take steps to combat the recession in the property market.

Last week, Gunne New Homes told staff that a number of people will have to be let go to stop the business from losing money. That followed news that Lisney is cutting pay across the board by 10 per cent. The company said the reduction will operate from the top down.

UK-based international agent DTZ, which has a stake in Irish firm DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald, let 50 people go from its 2,000-strong workforce in Britain last week.

There are persistent rumours that other leading property dealers have also cut either jobs or pay, but they have denied this, however.

A report on job cuts at Gunne New Homes last week wrongly stated that the agency is part of CBRE. This is not the case.