THE COUNTRY'S largest estate agency chain, Sherry FitzGerald, has shed over 20 of its 259 staff and cut the working hours of several more in an effort to stem losses in the business.

Other large firms are also letting staff go as the property downturn worsens. Many young estate agents on commission-based salaries are also dropping out of the business because sales have slowed to a great extent - some agencies are down to just one sale a week. This mirrors the situation in the UK where a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors survey said its members sold an average of just 11.5 houses during the three months to the end of September - the lowest level since 1978.

A director of Lisney, where pay was cut by 10 per cent earlier in the year, has said that at least 20 people have left the company in the last six months, through resignations rather than redundancies.

Shrinking commissions have also seen a steady stream of staff exit Savills HOK, where up to 60 people have been let go in the last 12 months, said a staff member who did not want to be identified.

Smaller firms are also seeing severe staff cuts and closures as conditions worsen. According to one independent agency in the south-east, job losses are mounting throughout the country.

"I have let half my staff go, and I will have to make more cuts," he said. "All the others are the same. They are making staff redundant or putting them on three-day weeks. Privately, no one is breaking even," he said. "This year I will lose a six figure sum."

Sherry FitzGerald chairman Mark FitzGerald says they held off cutting jobs for as long as possible. "Very reluctantly over the last number of months we've seen some very good people leave us through redundancy," he said. "However we still employ 380 people, quite apart from our franchise operations." The figure includes 151 people in the group's Marsh Parsons chain in London.

The Irish Auctioneers Valuers Institute (IAVI), which has over 2,000 members, says it is freezing subscriptions for agents who are in difficulty and who have to drop out temporarily. The institute charges up to a €500 annual fee for membership with additional fees for member firms.