Estate agent Barnard Marcus planning 'yet another' branch in Chiswick

As reported by local news service ChiswickW4.com, the national estate agency chain has submitted a planning application for changes to the site at 87-89 Chiswick High Road near the junction with Chiswick Lane. The site was formerly occupied by baby equipment retailer Peppermint.

The move has surprised local independent agents, unclear about their competitor’s strategy.

This will be the third branch in W4 adding to the chains other sites on Chiswick High Road and Turnham Green Terrace. Barnard Marcus has not responded to the question of whether or not it intends to retain the other branches. 

Christian Harper at Harper Finn: ‘How ridiculous.  It shows you how much money corporate estate agents have to waste. Barnard Marcus already has two offices that have a small market share of potential business in Chiswick, yet the chain thinks the answer is to open yet another office rather than improve the old-fashioned ones they already have.

"Maybe because it's cheaper to open a new office now and take advantage of the current Covid19 relief on rates, rents and PAYE?”

Harper has operated in Chiswick for 14 years without a high street presence and says he hasn’t come across a customer for years who has walked up and down Chiswick High Road to register with estate agents. He believes that the changing structure of the market will force estate agents to close high street branches over the next five years, which will ‘encourage artisan businesses of real interest back to our streets’.

“Isn’t it time that estate agents' offices are multi use? Why couldn’t all the agents operate in one huge sub-high-street office? Surveyors, architects, builders, interior designers, mortgage companies, estate agents and even furniture businesses could all be in one site. Wouldn’t that be more interesting and useful to the public than a generic corporate estate agent saturating Chiswick with yet another badly lit office with plasma screens and rows of cheap desks and nasty posters offering not much at all?”

Read the full story here including comments from other local independent agents including Andrew Nunn at Andrew Nunn Associates.

Harper Finn is a property sales and lettings agency specialising in Chiswick property. We don't have fancy premises and you won't find us cluttering up the high street. 
Barnard Marcus is part of Sequence (UK) Limited, a national network of estate agents, with over 320 offices.