Online agents increase market share to 7% in first quarter of this year, claim

| Rosalind Renshaw

Online agents increased their market share by 11% in the first quarter of this year, and now make up 7% of the overall market.

Customer intelligence firm twentyci said that in the first quarter of this year, online agents were responsible for 14,846 exchanges, compared with 205,133 by bricks and mortar agents.

The firm described the increase in online agents’ activity as “a significant trend”.

Twentyci said that overall, property exchanges are up nearly 8% compared with the same period last year.

Year on year, exchanges were up in every region but with big fluctuations – by only 1% in the south-west, but by 18% in the north-east.

However, it has also only recorded a 1% increase in listings, suggesting that conversion rates have increased.

Year on year, the firm says average house prices have remained unchanged at £297,000, and says both supply and demand are still below the levels of the crash in 2008.

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21 Comments

  1. Typhoon
    April 10, 2018 at 07:11

    Bol———- sorry this is public.  Dangly bits. Wonder how much they have invested in on line agencies. Tepilo’s figures yesterday demonstrated that whatever the on lineers’ market share is, it ain’t enough to make a profit,or to stop borrowing.

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  2. AgencyInsider
    April 10, 2018 at 07:20

    Highly doubtful. By what methodology has this company identified the actual selling agent and thus whether they are ‘online’ or otherwise? Land Registry does not record that piece of data and if they have relied on analysing portal listings they will have just about the most misleading data set it is possible to imagine.

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  3. Moveaside01
    April 10, 2018 at 07:26

    Cheap low end bargain basement options will always have a place in any industry, so no surprise there really. As a fully regulated and approved ‘Full Service’ agent I welcome these people into the market place as it makes us look better. However, if these people are under cutting each other now, how much lower can they go if they reach 25% market share? It will not stack up but we know this already, so I truly don’t lose much sleep on the matter….

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  4. Simon Bradbury
    April 10, 2018 at 07:27

    An interesting statistic but only useful if the company making this claim can define what they mean by “online agents”.

    Does this mean that twentyci believe that 93% of estate agents are not online? A dubious claim in my view.

    I would be grateful if they could confirm how they arrived at the definition of “online agents” and which specific firms were included within this definition.

    In actual fact aren’t nearly ALL estate agents actually online?

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  5. ArthurHouse02
    April 10, 2018 at 07:30

    I am a little confused by this. 1% higher instructions across the board and varying levels of exchange but lets take the bottom of this which is 1% more exchanges in the south west, so by their figures every single instruction is exchanging contracts? I dont think so

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  6. Robert May
    April 10, 2018 at 07:43

    Doppelgängers! I appreciate the angry aquatic avian will has something to say but the process of gaming by duplicating listings 2, 3 or 4 times means that when a single property gets marked as sold, sold by us, sstc or sale agreed it suddenly doubles, triples or quadruples the tally of properties that are a exchanging.

    As a result of the Tepilo story yesterday I had a look at a few of the  online listing, FSBO and passive intermediary firms’ financial performances. It looks like the victims of disruption are the disruptors themselves, they are quite literally eating themselves alive along with very large helpings of rival investors’ cash.

     

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  7. Property Poke In The Eye
    April 10, 2018 at 08:02

    Rosaland.  Please define what you believe to be online by 9am today, so we can have an open debate on this.

    I have had a website and an office since 2002.  I always thought I was online and offline on the marketing front.

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    1. Pollard36
      April 10, 2018 at 08:30

      I’d like to add to this more generally in that over the last three years of debating about online agents with customers I am yet to hear one proper definition.

      I know many flat fee, serviced office based agents in London who focus on one local area and provide a great service. I also know many high street agents who offer flat fees and offer a poor service.

      I only mention the above as fee structure, office location and service levels seem to be the only real things discussed when trying to define an online agent – the line is very blurred indeed in my opinion.

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      1. AgentV
        April 10, 2018 at 16:54

        Call Centre Listers

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        1. Room101
          April 10, 2018 at 17:09

          List & leave brigade

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  8. Pollard36
    April 10, 2018 at 08:35

    Whilst this could feasibly be true I would note that whilst online agents pride themselves on instruction levels as this is what they are paid on, the vast majority care about the sale as this is what they are paid on. With 50% of transactions not completing with the original agent (I suspect this would be higher with onliners), I would contend the ‘slice of the pie’ agents compete for is actually two completely different pies for online agents to high street (or whatever you would call non onliners).

    In any case, whilst this figure may be accurate, I would certainly raise questions on this given the lack of penetration in to London (based on discussions I have had on the subject with over 200 London agents), and the fact an online agent would surely be more expensive than many high street agents further north?

    P

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  9. Fairfax87
    April 10, 2018 at 08:56

    TwentyCi scrape data from property portals, so i am guessing that their data is based on how many listings by hybrid onliners have been marked as “SSTC” on those portals….. so not a true measure of actual exchanges

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    1. FakeNews
      April 10, 2018 at 09:09

      They also own ViewMyChain and with Purplebricks as a customer!! they have intimate info on a lot of YOUR chains and customers too! Beware

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  10. Woodentop
    April 10, 2018 at 10:07

    Whilst on a trip around Scotland recently it was interesting to see how many properties up for sale with on-line only agents in the rural areas. Is this because there is no perceived local competition?

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    1. Property Poke In The Eye
      April 10, 2018 at 10:22

      No.  I think the Scottish people have been misled, with the #misleadery message.

      When they find out that #misleadery doesn’t work.  They will make their voice heard.

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    2. Room101
      April 10, 2018 at 13:31

      I surmise, that some north of the border may have fallen for being misled.  However, when you consider the geographical vastness, extremes of topography and sparseness of property in the truly rural Scottish areas, I suspect the average rural Scottish home is rather used to a DIY sale; leaving the town & city solicitor agents / estate agents to concentrate on the more densely populated areas.

       

       

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  11. jeremy1960
    April 10, 2018 at 10:20

    Property in our road is coming up to its first birthday on the market soon with Burple *ricks, most other properties with local agents are under offer within weeks in this location proving that either price is wrong (most likely as agent was paid to list) or something wrong with house?

     

    http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67474784.html

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    1. Property Poke In The Eye
      April 10, 2018 at 10:28

      Price and Promotion seem ok to me, 
      Buyers like to phone and talk to real people. (One of the vital missing links)
      Buyers don’t want to register with an online system and arrange their own viewings. 
      Purple Tricks boards don’t have a number on them and the call centre doesn’t have a number either apart for valuations.
      I can go on….but you get the drift.

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      1. PeeBee
        April 10, 2018 at 15:44

        PPITE

        I agree in the main with your post.

        Even though I’m at the other end of the country I would disagree with saying that the price is okay, though.  Last similar property sold (might even have been the same developer judging by the standard and style of finish…) was much bigger.  IF you were working on square footage alone as the price denominator, this one is £170k ‘overvalued’.

        But of course it’s not – I’d think probably £75005 reduction would be sufficient to make buyers ears pr!ck up…

        …IF, that is, they are looking on t’interweb – ‘cos that’s pretty much the only place they’ll see it!

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    2. Woodentop
      April 10, 2018 at 11:05

      Maybe its because the local agents are local and pro-active at selling, while PB is solely reliant on reaction from buyers as and when they get around to looking. Sitting around waiting is never going to beat people who are go getters. I’d be knocking on their door and telling them why, diplomatically getting them to recognise their error of judgement.

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    3. PeeBee
      April 10, 2018 at 15:52

      jeremy1960

      Here’s just one recent piece of published evidence of their reliability on pricing:

      uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/5ac48d6c6d33bc02c8c9ccb2

      Speaks volumes, I would say – but their response to the customer simply beggars belief. 

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