Purplebricks, whose shares hit a new high on Monday at 180p giving it a market capitalisation of £417.28m, issued a trading update this morning emphasising “strong growth”.
Revenue for the year ending April 30 is expected to be around £18.5m, a year-on-year increase of some 445%.
It also said that the recruitment of local property experts is ahead of plan with 205 in place at the end of April.
The update, which comes ahead of Purplebricks announcing its final results for the year to April 30 on June 16, underlined that customer service “continues to be rated excellent” averaging 9.4 from 5,000 Trustpilot reviews.
Michael Bruce, chief executive, said: “Our rapid growth in the year demonstrates that customers are increasingly being won over to our hybrid model, which offers high quality service through our experienced Local Property Experts and innovative use of technology, as well as a competitive, flat fee.
“We enter the new financial year with the benefits of a full national rollout, a growing brand presence, upgraded technology through the recent launch of the Purplebricks’ app, the in-house data sales unit and a strong cash position.
“With solid underpinnings, momentum and the size of the market opportunity, we are confident in proving the business model and delivering value for all of our shareholders.”
The announcement this morning stressed that Purplebricks is “the leading hybrid estate agency providing a new way to sell, buy or let property”.
The company launched on to the stock market just before Christmas with shares priced at £1.
Time to check how much tax they have paid I think…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
the city has just worked out that purplebricks hav hit peak oil!! 7% drop already today in share price.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
bit annoyed that rightmove dont block purplebricks. Pb hate estate agents, offer no service and charge for not selling. Surely that’s enough to say cant list to protect the public. If pb are so good y do they need rightmove which I supposed to be a estate agent tool.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
i also wonder if they hav an enron policy of booking instructions as sales..what this ignores is some customers will stay on books for years to avoid paying the fee.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Our rapid growth in the year demonstrates that customers are increasingly being won over to our hybrid model, which which is heavily subsidised by the investors we have mugged……
Fixed it for you Mr Bruce
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
If you want to mug me with a £1 share that will be worth £1.80 in 6 months feel free. These investors you are so worried about want you to fail, so I wouldn’t be too worried about them. While you are shouting and screaming and telling everyone about PB not making a profit , there are a shed full of purple boards popping up you want to be dealing with.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I do deal with them. When they have not sold in 3 months I’m generally the one who has to hold their hands and explain that when you pay a cheap upfront fee you get a cheap job in return, hence a lack of a sale.
We generally then offer to do it properly.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
That’s exactly the point I’m making, vendors don’t give a jack if they haven’t made a profit and vendors don’t give a jack about the share price.
You get the instruction, they don’t have a revenue of 18.5 million…….Just sharpen your act up and don’t give them the first 3 months next time.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
The reason the shed is full of boards? Town and Country planning act says only one board per property, someone is possibly ordering the same number of boards as they’ve listed on the portals some of which have duplicate listings. That might account for a significant mismatch, certainly enough to fill a shed.
Looking at the figures on their website, working out their KPI’s and tied to this turnover figure by my estimation about £9 million has been spent on not achieving a sale. I could be a long way out but the completions to listings ratio doesn’t seem any better for this method of selling than the traditional 1:2 (credit Henry Pryor).
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
With circa 50% of #PurpleBricks properties unsold, this equates to consumers losing around £1,000,000 per month after gambling upfront on a sale
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
That would pay a large percentage of their staff. For effectively doing nothing…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Yep and who is getting a big fat salary for failing!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Didnt see any mention of profit? Is there anything in the full release
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity! What happened to the huge profit of £25,000,000 we have all sat here for a little over 2 years expecting to see?
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
“Revenue of 18.5m” but what did it cost to get that?
If Id thrown £30/40/50m+ at my business and then turned over £18.5m I dont think I would be as **** sure as these lot.
They’ve made good strides to get where they are and so far proved to be the most successful on-line receptionists yet, but to make money they will have to stop spending as much and start charging more. They will have to do this pretty sharpish because as housing cycles go we are arguably about 7 years away from another trough and when that happens no-one will want to know PB.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Didn’t EYE cover a story some months back with media expenditure by web portals including PB. Was it not in the teens of £M’s?
Just goes to show the power of TV if you have the £millions to spend.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Thanks ClarkUK it was £8m up to Nov 2015 so I suspect that it is now at least £12m. Just goes to show you can trust a stockbroker! If Gross is still around £6m ……… surely at least one investor or watchdog sooner or later is going to get wise when the NET is revealed.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Sorry I didnt think that c88k sure was offensive!
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
You can’t say words like **** or ****, even ******** is a bad word. The filter even stopped me from putting ****** in a post about that ******** from Essex.
(Apparently Ros can see the bad words and has a right laugh)
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Haha
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Talking about ‘revenue’ would suggest that they are still losing money.
Their TV and marketing costs are their biggest spend.
And all those unsold houses (given that they are paid up front (with factoring)) is a massive contingent liability because they all need servicing – that’s millions of pounds of further cost.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
No it’s not. They simply wont service them as they have no one to do it
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.* Judgement should be reserved until they announce their P & L.
Impressive surge in turnover but how much is taken from the high street rather than competing on line / call centre agents?
*British Home Stores turnover was £2.6 billion last year.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Love it. So what in God’s name is attracting mad people to invest with them. If I had done, I would be bailing now while I have a profit to show because they’ve made non, so shares will tumble. The key thing the city wanted to hear was ‘how much profit’ and it was a deafening silence. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION are the 3 key words in property. I wonder if SELL SELL SELL are the 3 key words here? I don’t think that PB is the LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION for my money.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Investor tracking apps. Sheep investors as one of the Bruces called them will blindly follow investors like Woodord without any real understanding of what they are doing. (AFATMASP software)
Others will be fully aware of what they are doing, a couple of million invested out of a paper £1billion of their own to cement their own position is nothing.
Scratch beneath the surface and it becomes apparent what is going on & who is connected to who.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
“*British Home Stores turnover was £2.6 billion last year….. “Pinching!”
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-named-as-spending-most-on-property-advertising-after-8m-spend/
we know where half of that money went!! What happened to the rest?
Oh wait don’t they give half to the money to the local property expert?
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 still awaiting for someone to check their money laundering compliance.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I get the impression that purplebricks are biting into the market and agents dont like it.
A little confused by some comments though over pipeline chasing.
Just phone your local Countrywide or Connells branch and get a detailed update. It will sound like…”yeh should be ok”
Personally think that fees of 8k/10k etc are obscene for advertising a house.
Many of the corporate agents are training Branch managers in 6 months and then they call them selves experts.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
No one is pretending that bad agency is exclusively a problem of the call-centre agents however, they do seem to have cornered the market in it though, I concede.
The problem with property industry in the UK is that it is not policed and any idiot can call themselves an estate agent…and many do.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
The problem is, only local people who dont make much money (unless you work at the magic agency the daily mail uses) work in this industry.
Internet agents are at their very core, corrupt, in offering no service and their only USP is to try and pursuade the public that this is a good thing.
Which luckily most arent falling for.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
“Personally think that fees of 8k/10k etc are obscene for advertising a house.”
Hodge most agents charge NOTHING for advertising a house and only charge when the deal is done. 8k/10k is a fair old sum, so without the detail of the deal behind that fee, it is easy to throw a double digit HSA fee in and make it sound like a lot.
I’ve just banked a £14k fee on a £1.4m deal, after 4 agents struggled including a “FSBO attempt” she did not eve quibble at our fee. My staff overcame overage clauses, double probate issues, protected woodland and all sorts over an intense 5 month period, which resulted in a happy buyer and delighted seller. (The buyer less so if they knew we negotiated about £40k more than the vendors bottom line too!)
I doubt I will see many £14k fees ever again but put a story to a fee and some sound well worth the money!
So your example, sounds high, as I charge £0, nothing, Zero, nada, zilch for advertising! but for getting the job done, hitting and beating a vendors expectation can be worth a few extra quid.
Roll on a good old property crash…. to see if “advertising” is all that is required to get the best price.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
I should add, when I said our typical fee is 1%, she said that’s fine, without me needing to haggle down.
1% is rare for me now, but sometimes some people respect effort or are fed up of agents selling low fees as the reason to be chosen…. my latest instruction has offered the negotiators cash bonuses on staged targets….. if they get the asking price, they get £2k cash on top of our fee! and within 5% of the asking price £1k cash…. big house big money but the staff excited about selling…. just as an agent should be.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
what honest agents don’t like is the false claims;
24 hour estate agency, err no it isn’t it is usual core hours plus a reception service plus part time live chat.
All staff are qualified Estate Agents,err no they are not
Local, err 121 activity centres per lister creating a comparative operational carbon footprint about 8x that of a traditional agent.
Expert, err unless Expert is a synonym for negotiator/ lister nah!
£49.5 million profits promised to investors by May 2016. Did not happen.
The average agency commission in the UK is under £4300 including VAT so are misinformed.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
On being misinformed – I saw an advert for an online agent yesterday and they were using average fees quoted by Which? magazine 2011 – which was probably featured in a magazine in during 2010
now i’m pretty good at maths and statistics – and quoting from data 5 years ago is massively misleading – why is this allowed to be portrayed as saving money on figures available 5 years ago? and on telly too.
I really think the industry needs something done soon –
Estate agents should be qualified to call themselves Agents, Local should be within say 50 miles, and 24 hour should mean 24 hour and they should not be allowed to quote figures older than 2 years.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Hilarious the digs at online agents, im not one but I certainly don’t fear them as it sounds like most on here do. Some of them do offer a good service, check their review sites compared to HSA’s.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Like all business models, there are good and bad however, the proliferation of the call-centre agent by the lure of easy money from investors who are gullible enough to invest on the back of a dodgy headline having failed to carry out even the most basic checks of the facts, has created a glut of cowboys entering the industry who have serially mislead the public on an industrial scale in some cases.
Agents don’t fear the business model (with a market share that never got above 4% nationally and is now falling, why should we?), what we despise, and get so passionate about (and what so many observers don’t understand), is seeing the public being lied to, mislead and ripped off by some firms who are, in some cases, no better than con-artists.
Yes, there are bad high street agents out there too and, we would dearly love to see them kicked off the high street as well but, some of these call-centre agents have the ability and budget spend to rip off thousands off customers by trading off provably false claims and made up statistics.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
thetrumanshow, I doubt very much that youre not an online receptionist…
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
Some of them do offer a good service, check their review sites compared to HSA’s.
REALLY? You are making this statement relying on ‘REVIEWS’ as corroboration?
Just look for yourself at the Trustpilot site. A recent (within last 3 days) 2* review received no feedback from PB – yet the gushing offerings before and after get the equally gushing agent response.
There are also a significant number of reviews which have been taken down because “Purplebricks reported this review for breach of Trustpilot guidelines“. Interestingly I can find many reports which “breach guidelines” going back several months – but none seem to have been ‘assesses in accordance with Trustpilot’s reporting processes’ as stated.
Wonder what that signifies?
If they GENUINELY cared about good service… as you seem to believe be the case… then surely they should be addressing the (apparently) very few unhappy customers and not just those who seem happy to fluff up the feathers?
I think several things are being called into question here, ‘thetrumanshow69’ – and I would suggest that your agenda is high up on that list with many people 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’m seriously struggling with the maths here.
Have PB publishes any stats whatsoever as to the number of instructions they claim to have listed in the 12 months?
With their previous claim of ‘3000 in the last month’ (whenever that month was…) being a record; being up 445% on previous years figures – and taking into account their fee structure, I cannot see them being able to claim any more than 22,000 NEW* listings.
According to Zoopla (who, unlike Rightmove, still aggregate the individual regions) they have ‘listed’ 2408 in the last 30 days.
I have evidenced properties that have been ‘re-listed’ within this period – so the 2408 is not a true representation of the actual total.
November 2015 listings appear to have been running at 50ish per day average (but this included ‘re-listings’, reductions and whatever else was thrown in…) – and evidently the figure had been growing all year – so April 2015 I am certain must have been circa 600-700 the ‘455% increase’ YoY that’s being quoted.
Anyone have any differing views or want to help me with the maths?
*First-time, paid-for instructions, and/or re-listings for which an additional fee has been paid.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register
In order to solve the maths you have to think like PB, PeeBee.
Throw away all you know about maths.
Pull random numbers out of the air. Add a few zeros for good measure.
Scream and shout about this figure and how amazing it is.
You must be logged in to like or dislike this comments.
Click to login
Don't have an account? Click here to register