Strike chief executive Sam Mitchell has blamed uncertainty since the September mini-Budget and rising mortgage rates for making the market more challenging as he confirmed rumours of job cuts at the online agent.
Mitchell, chief executive of Strike, said the brand was “adjusting inline with the market.”
It comes after the agent, previously known as HouseSimple, switched to a sell-for-free service launched in Yorkshire and the North West in June 2019, followed by Nottingham and the North East in 2020 before going national last year.
Most its income is derived from referrals or by selling extra services.
Mitchell told Estate Agent Today: “We are incredibly proud of what we have built, launching a new brand, Strike, during the uncertainty of lockdown.”
He said highlights included being the first company to sell houses for free, growing to be the second biggest agent in the UK within two weeks of our nationwide launch, seeing its mortgage team hit £1.5bn of lending in a year, being rated excellent on Trustpilot after 20,000 Trustpilot reviews and winning the Estas award for online estate agent of the year three years in a row.
Mitchell added: “The market was getting tougher anyway, but since the mini-Budget of late September and the subsequent sharp increases in mortgage rates it has become even more challenging.
“This sadly has meant that we have had to make a number of redundancies.”
The brand has completed a 45-day collective consultation process and Mitchell said those affected have been treated fairly, consistently and with integrity.
He added; “Whilst this will be a difficult time for those that leave the business, for those that remain we firmly believe that Strike is well placed to continue our mission to make moving simple, transparent, and free.
“We know how well our message has cut through in this fragmented market and we've seen how well the proposition and brand resonates with customers. We believe Strike remains a very powerful proposition.
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its unfortunate but inevitable that firms across the moving industry will be making cut backs be that agents, conveyancers etc if transaction volumes fall staffing levels will also .........
As a business that makes its revenue from selling other services such as mortgages- aren't increasing rates a good thing?
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