Estate agents are predicting a bumpy ride. But it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s time for buyers to snap up a bargain.

Unlike redundancies and closures in manufacturing, defence or most other industries, the rapid reduction in estate agency branches and staff is going largely unnoticed by an indifferent press and public.

With home sales at half of last year’s level it follows that the housing market can only support half the number of estate agents seen in the boom years.

Posh premises in the high streets previously selling half-million-pound homes for well heeled homeowners will soon be selling second hand nick-nacks and cardigans for Oxfam or Age Concern. Charity shops, cafes and craft shops, or something similar, will replace half of the estate agents in the High Streets as few other serious retailers or shoppers are now willing to brave the aggressive parking regimes.

This credit crunch marks a watershed in the industry which will no doubt recover but probably in a much-altered form requiring less investment in staff and premises and less uncertainty in income. The "no sale, no fee" culture, unique to estate agency, will have to be modified as will the lowest estate agency fees in the western world – about two per cent in the UK, six per cent in the US and up to 10 per cent in Europe.

All this, of course, is a way down the line as most agents are bravely trading at a loss hoping the market will turn before their money runs out. But turn it will, and when it does it will turn quickly and with a surprising vengeance. The pent-up demand for homes and shortage of supply, which is being aggravated by house builders packing away their shovels until better times, will grow as the population increases and rents are forced up to uneconomic levels once again making house purchase by far the most sensible option.

In the meantime the market has a "during the war" type feel with some keenly priced properties to be had while the less brave cower in their shelters waiting for the "all clear" from the press, terrified by the false propaganda that there are no mortgages to be had and no benefits to home ownership.

Ron Kennor is General Manager of Robinson Jackson Estate Agencies. He can be contacted on 01322 666444.