Important to note from the news item it says
"Property transactions for the year to date are also well down on last year's level at only 747,000, compared with 1.3 million during the nine months to the end of September 2007."
ie, there are 600,000 LESS transactions than a year earlier - that's a lot of agent commission out of the loop.
Graham Brown
http://www.loveproperty.org/profile/GrahamDBrown