Knight Frank has launched a new affiliate estate agency model allowing self-employed agents to operate under its brand while working independently.
The model is designed to extend the firm’s residential sales coverage into areas outside its existing high street office locations, without opening new physical branches.
Agents in the network will operate in defined areas alongside existing Knight Frank offices. They will be responsible for generating instructions, managing client relationships and building their own business pipelines, with operational and regulatory support provided by the company.
Agents will earn commission on sales and may also receive additional fees for referring clients into other services across Knight Frank’s residential and commercial divisions in the UK and internationally.
Tim Hyatt, head of residential at Knight Frank, commented: “This client led strategy extends our reach into areas where we can expand our sales coverage, and where we know there is clear demand for Knight Frank’s services. In each of our initial target markets, for the first time, clients will benefit from the expertise and reassurance of the Knight Frank brand and its global network.
“Outside of our existing patches our brokers will be self‑employed giving them control of their diary, clients and transactions, with genuine scope for scale and high levels of earnings. We are committed to empowering exceptional talent to grow personal brands they are proud of, supported by the credibility, reach and expertise of Knight Frank.”
Knight Frank has identified 36 markets for potential expansion. Initial London areas include Ealing, Totteridge, Barnes and Putney, Brook Green and Shepherd’s Bush, and Crouch End and Muswell Hill. Its Canary Wharf office will be repositioned as a City and East London hub covering areas including Canary Wharf, Wapping, Shoreditch, Tower Bridge and Southbank.
Rory Penn, head of London Sales at Knight Frank, said: “This is an opportunity to scale our sales business to meet client demand, leveraging the exceptional operating platform that we have built over the last few years. We are talking to experienced, professional and entrepreneurial agents looking for independence combined with the benefits of working with a leading global brand. Knight Frank will provide brokers with high‑quality marketing materials, leading technology and CRM systems, underpinned by the strategic brand and operational support required to set up and scale a business of their own.”
Interesting move, but it raises a bigger question, can a brokerage model really sit within a traditional high street structure?
True brokerages are built lean by design. That’s what allows them to put up to 90% of commission into the agent’s pocket and genuinely empower individuals to build their own business. High street firms, with branch overheads, layered management, and shareholder expectations, simply don’t have the same economics. It’s very difficult to make the maths stack up in a way that’s even remotely comparable.
There’s also a fundamental point around autonomy. If you’re being told where your patch starts and ends, and operating within an existing office network, you’re not really building your own business, you’re building theirs. For some, that may act as a stepping stone, but it’s not true independence.
What we’re seeing isn’t so much innovation as it is adaptation. The self-employed model is growing quickly because it aligns incentives properly, gives agents real ownership, and delivers a more personal service to clients. We’re seeing that first-hand at Moveli, where experienced agents are using the model to step upmarket, increase fees, and retain far more of what they bill.
The question isn’t whether the model works, it already does. The question is whether it can be retrofitted into a structure that was never designed for it.
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The self-employed role is clearly the way things are going. Expect to see less agents in your High Street, er, rather soon…
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