The central London market may be slowing but its big ticket properties and good commissions are still attracting agents to enter the area.
The latest is Charles Derby Estates which this week opens an office in Notting Hill; in addition to operating sales and lettings services it promises highly qualified investment, pension and mortgage advisers according to Bobby Parikh, director of the agency and a Notting Hill resident since the mid-1990s.
This takes the number of sales agents operating in this small area to over 30.
The people running the Charles Derby operation have unusual backgrounds: in addition to Parikh, its two main representatives are Suresh Gupta, a former physicist who has a simulation software business, and Kirit Lakhani, a mortgage adviser who operates the Charles Derby Estates franchise in Leicester.
The new entrant arrives just as figures from a rival agency - John D Wood - show that the tail-off in central London has not significantly damaged prices in Notting Hill.
Its data for the first quarter of this year suggests that prices rose about six per cent in that area between January and April.
A Notting Hill home that cost £1m in 2000 would now be worth £3.27m, it says.
Comments
Good luck - but chances are unless they have VERY deep pockets and outstanding staff, they will get eaten alive.
In Notting Hill, I'm not surprised. I hope these new agencies/offices popping up aren't going to saturate the market!