Is the worst over for property industry redundancies?

Back in January we asked property professionals in London how they were feeling about life and the market and not surprisingly the response that came back implied that the makers of prozac would be in for a profitable year.

But at the midway point through what will probably be the industry's annus horribilis the mood seems to be shifting.

At the start of the year more than two thirds of our survey's respondents thought there would be more large scale redundancies but now that figure is down to  21%. In fact nearly three-quarters think "the worst is over".

Many firms are now opting for cuts in salaries in order to stem further job losses - a strategy most recently demonstrated by GVA Grimley (EG News Jul 4). Lets hope this tack is rewarded with a stabilising market. Certainly our sentiment survey shows the level of pessimism decreasing and slighter falls in capital values and rents are now predicted compared to the start of the year.

The results of the second sentiment survey are analysed in this week's London & North Boroughs Focus and the full results of both our sentiment surveys can be found by clicking the following links.
 
London sentiment survey Q1 full results
London sentiment survey Q2 full results

Picture by tuppus' and used under creative commons from Flickr.