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London housing boom: Estate agent fees hit £1 billion

London’s estate agents earned £1.1 billion in fees last year as a result of the City’s ongoing housing boom.

According to research by online estate agents HouseSimple, sellers could expect to pay an average of £9,384 in agent fees per property bought in 2014.

The total £1.1 billion in fees paid out last year represented a 23 per cent rise on the £915,000 figure for 2013, the report says.

Estate agents working in the exclusive Kensington and Chelsea area topped the table, taking home £73 million in fees last year alone, a 16 per cent rise on last year.

In addition, the fees paid to estate agents surged by around 50 per cent year on year in some boroughs.

In Olympic host borough Newham, estate agents’ fees jumped almost 55 per cent, from £11.3 million to £17.6 million. In Greenwich there was a 50 per cent rise from £20.3 million to £30.5 million.

Alex Gosling, chief executive of HouseSimple, told Mail Online: “After their performance last year, you’d be hard pressed to find a high street estate agent without a Cheshire Cat-sized grin on their face.

“Properties in desirable London boroughs were practically selling themselves, and yet high street agents stubbornly kept their fee levels high.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .