Roof falls in at Chesterton

Upmarket British estate agency Chesterton has gone into receivership with 300 job losses due to the property market slowdown, it emerged today.

The company, which deals in commercial property and homes generally worth more than £500,000 (€722,669), called in receivers after suffering several years of losses.

It has struggled 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 terrorist attacks in the US. The commercial part of the business lost £2m (€2.9m) in the seven months since the end of June last year.

Receivers Grant Thornton have already made about 300 staff on the commercial side of the business redundant. A spokesman said some of the commercial offices have closed, although the residential offices remain open.

The receivers say a sale of the commercial side is unlikely, although they are talking to two interested parties about a potential sale of the residential business and expect to reach a deal “within days”.

“Chesterton has been making significant losses in the past few years,” receiver Nigel Morrison said.

The group was set up 200 years ago and now has more than 700 staff in 36 offices across the UK, with 18 commercial offices providing agency, investment, professional, management and consultancy services and 18 offices dealing in residential sales, lettings and property management.

Chesterton said on its website that it had recently opened residential offices in Manchester and Newcastle and had continued to review opportunities for further expansion.

The company also operates in more than 40 countries worldwide through an alliance of international property groups.

It started in 1805 when Charles Chesterton founded a small estate agency in what was then rural Kensington.

Originally a family-owned business and then a professional partnership, Chesterton was a public limited company listed in 1994 until it was bought by private owners in 2003 and delisted in March 2004.

Today, Skillglass, a subsidiary of Resurge, controls 87% of the group.