There were few redundancies in the property industry in the first month of 2010 but an upturn in administrations and receiverships – including two of the most significant developer failures – suggested the year ahead will see the banks increasingly look to call in problem loans.
Click here to view the redundancies timeline and administrations timeline
According to the latest EGi Jobs Tracker, there were only 25 redundancies in January, all prompted by the collapse of developer Thornfield’s Thornfield Ventures subsidiary.
However, there were seven administrations and receiverships.
The property industry will have been most concerned by Lloyds’ decision on at the beginning of January to call time on four well-known companies in one day.
The casualties were Iain Wotherspoon’s Kilmartin Holdings and Kilmartin Property Group, both in receivership, and his Annfield Assets, which went into administration.
Thornfield Ventures Ltd, a subsidiary of developer Thornfield Properties, was also placed in administration.
The move was a clear sign that the bank is ready to act on the distressed positions it inherited from HBOS.
