Hunters Property, which announced four new jobs would be created earlier this year when it started running specialist auctions in Fakenham, has gone into liquidation.

The estate agency was established in 2004 in Wells with managing director Tom Royall and took over the Fakenham office of Patrick Plumpton chartered surveyors and auctioneers in May 2006.

But the sudden closure of its offices in Staithe Street, Wells, and on Fakenham Market Place appears to have come out of the blue, with staff made redundant and the sales and lettings transferred to other businesses.

Pure Lettings in Norwich has taken over the lettings side and its manager, Lorraine Ismail, told the EDP that Hunters closed last Friday with the transfer of business finalised this week.

“If people ring the Hunters number they will be given our details,” she said. “We are in the process of writing to all our landlords and tenants informing them of the situation.” She added that there were plans to open an office in Fakenham soon.

Most of Hunters sales properties will now be on the books with Tops/Fine & Country in Burnham Deepdale.

A public notice in the EDP yesterday announced a meeting of creditors at the Norfolk Club, Upper King Street, Norwich, on June 12, with claims to be put to agents Smith Aston, of Norwich, two days before.

Mr Royall was unavailable for comment last night.

It comes as new figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) suggest 15,000 estate agents will lose their jobs this year due to the downturn in the housing market.

The group said the economic downturn would cause job losses in virtually all areas of the business services sector during the coming two years, leading to more than 40,000 job cuts.

This would be the first reduction in employment in the sector since 2001.

Jorg Radeke, one of the authors of the report, said: “Although unlikely to be the victims of the credit crunch that will garner the most sympathy, estate agents and others involved in managing real estate are likely to find the next 12 months particularly tough and there will be extensive job cuts.

“The only silver lining for this part of the business services sector is that 'what comes down must go up' and as real estate is among the first to face the economic downturn it will also be among the first to benefit from a future economic upturn.”

But while estate agents will be hit first, Cebr expects consultants, research and development firms and even accountants to suffer job losses by the end of next year

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