Fine & Country is the fastest growing premium estate agency brand in England and Wales over the last 12 months, according to figures provided by TwentyCi, an independent statistics provider,
Growth is measured by the number of properties on the market in the last 12 months, in this case from August 3 2017 to August 2 2018, and compared to the previous 12 months (August 3 2016 to August 2 2017) in England and Wales.
The results revealed that Fine & Country has grown by 18.9 % year on year, which is substantially higher than the next closest competitor at only 4.2% growth.
The organisation would not name its next closest competitor, but said it was a high-end estate agency.
David Lindley, CEO of Fine & Country, said: “We are thrilled with the growth we have seen over the last 12 months.
“It is a testament to the hard work of our agents in 220 locations throughout the UK.
“Over the last year we have been extremely proactive in our marketing approach to ensure that our value proposition is conveyed to our target audience and the fruits of our efforts are in the results.
“Compared to the direct competition, we also have one of the highest Sold Subject to Contract rates.
“We are also the agent with one of the smallest price changes and fall-through rates.
“Another reason that we have seen such growth in the number of listings we have, is the fact that we get results for our clients.
“Home owners want to know that they are listing one of their largest financial assets with an agent who has the expertise and resources to attain the optimum outcome.
“A happy client who has had a good experience is the best kind of marketing a brand can ask for.
“Our goal is to continue to grow and provide our clients with the outstanding service they come to expect from the brand.
“We look forward to seeing what the next year brings and aim to remain at the top of the growth leader board.”
Surely these figures depend entirely on what companies market as Fine and Country?
I’ve seen agents listing a £400K modern estate house as F&C, I’m not sure you’d see many Knight Frank or Savills listing those!
This is simply another PR commissioned report setting out to distort figures and deceive.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Think theyve done well.
Love these solid reports.
‘One ‘ of the quickest
‘One ‘ of the best.
In urplepricks land ‘One ‘ could mean top 100.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
So to sum up the research that they wont reveal against competitors that they wont name…Fine & Country tell us that they are the fastest growing high end brand (please define exactly what this means) yet they are not achieving the highest listing to SSTC ratio?? Does this mean the company mantra over the last year has been over value, over value, over value? Surely if they were the best of the best they would also have the highest SSTC ratio. The closest F & C office to me, does 0.5% fees
Any monkey can over value a house and quote a cheap fee to tempt the owner, but it takes real skill to sell a property.
Also hard to bang on about being a premium brand when you are in bed with the complete opposite of Easy Property!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Fine and country are not a high-end estate agent.
What a joke story.
From what I understand they are a franchise operation for mainstream estate agents to pretend they had a upmarket side to the business.
Lots of tragic local agents do it – invent a brand called “distinctive” or like Hunters “exclusive” because They think this will give them a slice of the upper end of the market.
I don’t think vendors are actually that stupid – calling yourself distinctive doesn’t mean you operate in the market that Savills, Knight Frank or Strutts do.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Joke? They are a well known brand who have grown organically. Better then a fake hedge fund backed onliner.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Oh, WHOOPEEDOO! Another erm… report… from this “independent statistics provider” we are meant to swallow as Gospel.
Following their last attempt at statistical *********** (credit: Jonnie) on behalf of the PurpleOnes I frankly wouldn’t believe their figures if they quoted how many minutes are in an hour.
I would suggest F&C have wasted their money.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
As is so often the case I am always amazed when employing statistics firms they forget the Disney films they watched as children:
“Magic mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?”. The mirror always replies: “My Queen, you are the fairest in the land.”
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
First property you come to (4920 in total, apparently…) on the F&C website is this one –
fineandcountry.com/uk/property-for-sale/london-lancaster-gate/w2-3lh/50101835 – 60 bedrooms for a mere £26.8million
Second property is this one:
fineandcountry.com/uk/property-for-sale/london-lancaster-gate/w2-3lh/50101895 – same property… same £26.8m pricetag… just 20 bedrooms less, apparently. Same “branch” of F&C.
Wonder how many more duplicates are listed with them – and how the “independent statistics provider” deals with such anomalies?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
As an aside, the same property is listed with no less than SIX brands on Rightmove.
Assuming that only one of them can ‘sell’ the property, that means that according to other “statistics providers”, only 16.66% of Agents will have succeeded in selling a property in Lancaster Gate – and that the others lost some £1.75m in Fees.
Care to comment on this statistic, Mr Gary Barker?
Or how about a nugget of insight from outside of the pond, Mr Pryor?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
The moment some good news is written, about ANY agent out there, you’re out of the wood work!
Bitter much or just bad at maths? Or both?
If an agent advertises 100 (admin error perhaps) and he sells 50, it means he’s just sold 50% of his stock.
Enter the eagle eyed detectives amongst us and what do you know, the agent never had 100 properties. they only had 75!
Now, Mr PeeBee, does selling 2/3rds of his stock instead of 1/2 (half, for the mathematically challenged) make him a good agent or???
Toodles!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
AdiT
Not sure where you’re coming from on this one.
Fine&Country ISN’T an “agent”. It is a brand that can be bought into on an area/postcode basis, to showcase “special” properties. Within F&C there are undoubtedly some excellent individual Agents and Agencies. There are also some ‘good’ ones; some average ones – and some that don’t even reach that bar.
But in terms of the “branch” that is apparently listing the same property twice on the F&C website, with 20 bedrooms less (or more, depending how you look at it) – then either they don’t check their own listings enough, which is a poor reflection of them, or the F&C website is at fault, which is a poor reflection on the brand and all that sail in it.
An “admin error” such as you offer as an excuse doesn’t cut any slack with me nor should it with any of the industry regulators or “authorities”.
With regard to the statistical part of your post – I really don’t think it can be judged whether an Agent with 75% apparent success rate is “good” by that single metric – do you? However, an Agent displaying an extra 1/3 (one third, for those that you refer to as “mathematically challenged”) of properties than they actually have on the market could be doing themselves no end of harm by effectively reducing their perceived ‘success rate’ by 1/2 (I’ll leave you to figure that one out.).
I’m interested that this is an observation (or small collection of) that you clearly want to make something out of.
Therefore I look forward to your next post. The next thrilling instalment, so as to speak.
Just make it clear next time what you’re banging the cr@p out of your keyboard about, please.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
PeeBee,
By that logic, Knight Frank isn’t an agent, Savill’s isn’t an agent but simply a brand with a whole bunch of people working under it. What’s the difference? The technicality? The fact that some are employed by the brand and some pay a licence fee to use it? It simply means that KF and Savill’s have managers, whilst F&C have business owners managing their own businesses.
In my humble opinion, you tend to work a lot harder when it’s your own business and it’s you who has to deal with the bills and the wages and every employee’s livelihood! Perhaps the maths are telling us an obvious story?
As far as THAT property that seems to have got you wound up; did you bother clicking on it? Take a look and you might learn something. It is a development opportunity. A shell of a once busy hotel. The options, to the oncoming developer, seem to be, either a 60 room hotel or a bunch of flats, totaling 40 or so bedrooms. Now, how many rooms would you advertise it as???
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Knight Frank… Savills… EweMove… PurpleBricks… those and several thousand others – including I assume “AdiT & Co” are all “brands” – no argument from me there. But from there we branch apart very quickly on that point and I completely disagree with your “logic” – or more precisely your interpretation of mine.
Never mind – if we both agree on everything the one of us is redundant.
I do however agree with you on the next point you make (so things aren’t completely you versus me…). Maybe in that respect I’m having an ‘off’-day – or more likely you’re having an ‘on’-one…
Not sure what you mean about the maths bit. Please enlighten.
Now to your final paragraph. “THAT property” hasn’t got me wound up in the slightest. And yes – I did click on it. I clicked on both of the F&C listings – and all of the others that make this an excellent example of multi-listings that skew the “maths” that you refer to. Which was the thrust of my post in that respect – and which I wish to make crystal clear to you had approximately nothing to do with F&C or any other Agent/brand in particular.
In terms of “number of bedrooms” I frankly couldn’t give a fuppenny whether the property has one or a hundred-and-one. However, when an Agent/brand markets the same property twice with a 50% or 33% differential in the number of rooms dependent on how you look at the “maths” you have to question the Agent/brand’s ability to get the basics right – don’t you?
Now – do you want to keep at this like two handbag-wielding Duracell bunnies – or how’s about sniping at some of the other posters in the hope that they will ignore you?
Either way – I’ll be here.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I’ve seen examples of listings being manipulated on RM between core brand and F&C within the same branch to show said listings as ‘New’ Same Property Reference Number and everything – RM are aware and couldn’t give a stuff.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Stopped reading as soon as I saw TwentyCi mentioned.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Probably the best post on this thread.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Nice numbers, great news for F&C franchisees, no doubt will put a spring in their step and the marketing team will turn it all into sexy stuff for the consumer to see and Frankly if you believe you are really a top end agent and consider your market the Knight Frank, Savills etc league then I have no doubt that if you go and value a £3m house the vendor will love to watch you do some old school willy wafting about the data a company no one has heard of has come up with?
However, is it fair to say that many F&C franchises are also easyproperty ones too? you know them, dinosaur bum holes, funeral marches, tiny market share and all that?
I’m under the impression that this bit isn’t going so well so lets think of it like this, you have a golfing weekend with the boys and you have to do that difficult bit where you announce to your wife that you are slinging your hook for a weekend to drink beer, laugh a lot, hit some balls and leave her at home with the kids so before you do it you tell her you are taking her out for dinner, you’ve sorted Nana to have the kids, you’ve booked a hotel room and have organised the lot………………then while she’s all happy about that you hit her with the bad bit about the boys weekend.
So, blithering on a bit now but when is the Guild / F&C / Easyproperty going to hit the franchises with the bad news / golf weekend?
Jonnie
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Jonnie… WELCOME BACK, sunshine!!
Mate – I was getting worried about you!
Nice to see that, as always – like our old mucker wardy – your infrequent visits never disappoint!
Don’t be so long next time. Interflora are getting wazzed off with being on permanent standby…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
PeeBee
We have often compared this corner of the internet to a local boozer? – We have regulars, we have tourists and we have the infrequent locals, I’m none of them I’m here every day with my pint watching the conversation and thoroughly enjoying it too!
Trouble is we have from time to time the odd balls and shouty chaps they are too although they do come and go, saying that we used to have Sibleys B’stard Child and Rantnrave pop in and I won’t lie I miss those lads despite them being http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk residents and like you I agree it’d be good to have Wardy back (are you out there Wardy?)
Jonnie
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
“I’m here every day with my pint watching the conversation and thoroughly enjoying it too!”
I think you’ve got the right idea, mon ami!
I see rant is still… well… ranting over on HPC. Not sure what happened to Sibley’s… – but I sincerely hope he stopped listening to the ******** on that site and bought himself a nice little place somewhere.
It’s good to look back, Jonnie. Our industry doesn’t really change much – just a different bunch of the same snake-oil salesmen types pop up with their sh!te’n’briny wares and think they are going to kill us all off.
One day, matey, who knows – we may actually see an asteroid. But until then…
Respect & regards
Peebs ;o)
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register