KEY POINTS:
The slump in house sales has taken its toll on one of Auckland's largest real estate businesses.
Classic Real Estate - one of the companies trading as The Professionals - is shutting all eight of its offices, including its large Albany headquarters.
Stunned staff were told on Tuesday that many of the offices would close today.
Attempts to contact company owner Havard Daniels yesterday were unsuccessful but one branch manager said the situation was tragic because the agency had won awards and had played a big part in the community.
Other agencies trading under The Professionals banner are not affected.
Classic had offices at Albany, Greenhithe, Coatesville, Helensville, Kumeu, Kaukapakapa, Mairangi Bay and Browns Bay.
The agency started with six people in 1991, and grew to have 55 salespeople, 17 administration staff and a big property management division.
One Classic staff member thought many of the agency's listings would be transferred to Barfoot and Thompson offices in the area.
Barfoot had the lion's share of Shore house listings, selling about 40 per cent of houses in the area, he said.
Barfoot chief executive Wendy Alexander said her firm was offering Classic salespeople the opportunity to transfer and they could bring their listings with them.
Barfoot was also doing due diligence on Classic's property management division, she said.
"But we're not taking over any of the Classic branches."
Classic Real Estate claimed that it made 70 per cent to 90 per cent of Coatesville and Greenhithe property sales and "also holds a significant market share in Albany".
The housing market has been in the doldrums this year, with only about half the number of houses being sold compared to about two years ago.
About 100,000 houses were being sold at the peak of the boom this decade, but only about 60,000 houses were expected to be sold this year.
Around 18,000 to 20,000 people were working in the real estate industry at its peak, but Realestate.co.nz chief executive Alistair Helm said in August that at least 100 agencies had shut their doors in the past year.
Many of the closures were in the previous six months, he said, and were a logical reaction to the declining volumes.
The latest national monthly statistics for September sales showed only 4499 residential properties were sold.
Real Estate Institute figures on last month's sales are due out early next week. The national median price has been static lately at $330,000.
Mike Elford, the institute's new Dunedin-based national president, said the market was sluggish and the lower-than-usual number of properties being listed was a reflection of people's resistance to taking losses on the value of their property.
