BusinessLive reports that real-estate group Pam Golding is cutting head-office staff and reducing branch offices and says the Covid-19 pandemic has underscored a changing market where online activity is becoming increasingly important.  

The group said it was also bracing for significant pressure on the housing market, warning that SA’s GDP could decline as much as 10% in 2020.  Noting that the real-estate industry in particular had been brought to the brink of collapse, CEO Andrew Golding observed:  “The whole world finds itself in a fundamentally new environment characterised by significant volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.”  The group said it would be reorganising its head office, cutting branch offices, while an increasing amount of work would take place remotely.  “Regrettably, we have had to contemplate reducing our staff complement to bring it in line with the realities of the economy and the new real-estate market going forward,” the company indicated.  That would not affect franchise businesses, which are independently owned and operated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Karl Gernetzky at BusinessLive

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