Bradleys Estate Agents has been forced to close its Kingsbridge branch, cutting five jobs in the process.

Shocked staff at the Kingsbridge office were told of the redundancies on Monday morning.

The Totnes branch has also been closed with the loss of 12 jobs.

Bradleys, who have around 70 offices in the South West, said the cut backs were part of a series of "strategic and sensible business decisions".

Estate agents across the region have been affected by rising interest rates, the introduction of HIPs and the tightening of lending criteria.

Bradleys say they are hopeful that the uncertainty of the global financial sector will soon subside and the property market will recover.

Mark Flynn, the main board director for Bradleys, said in a statement: "The property market has been affected by the introduction of HIPs, interest rate rises over the last few months and uncertainty in the national and global banking world which, when combined, have caused a detrimental slowdown in the property market.

"Due to this Bradleys have made some strategic and sensible business decisions which have resulted in the company mothballing one office and transferring another into change of ownership within the area.

"There is no doubt the market is now at a stage where buyer and seller realism is setting in and I'm pleased to report this is having a more positive effect on transaction levels."

The company's Kingsbridge branch was opened back in early 2000.