As the “for sale” signs multiply, the number of estate agents is dropping. Little wonder. Starved of mortgage finance, unable to sell, or simply unwilling to pay now for property that may be cheaper next month or next year, buyers are making intermediaries work hard just to stay afloat. Hard work is precisely what those agents that burst into life during the residential property boom, when homes were sold almost as soon as they were advertised, aren’t used to. The archetypal flash agent – regarded with little fondness by anyone who has bought a house in the past few years – is now a dying breed.

But the savage drop in transactions – a more critical measure of estate agent health than house prices – is also taking its toll on large chains such as Savills, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward and Halifax.