Purplebricks has denied in the strongest possible terms that its business in Australia is in any kind of difficulty.
It follows publication by the Australian Financial Review of claims that 27 Local Property Experts have quit since March, with suggestions that they have been unable to make the money they expected.
While EYE reported the claims on Friday, we also pointed out that the Australian housing market is suffering, amid speculation of a crash, which will have affected a number of agencies.
A Purplebricks spokesperson has now told us: “We have hired 18 agents in the last two months.
“The net number of agents in the field in Australia is unchanged from March, despite some churn.
“We are winning market share in a declining housing market.
“Our growth allows us to continue to recruit while many traditional operators are making substantial redundancies.”
The spokesperson also said that the situation was unchanged from its trading update in late March when it announced the £1125m Axel Springer investment in Purplebricks: “Both the US and Australia Purplebricks businesses are set to at least meet full-year expectations,” the spokesperson said.
He added: “Market expectations are for year-on-year revenue growth in Australia of 250%.
“If annualised, for the eight months’ trading last year, expectations are for year-on-year growth of 138% – not bad in a declining market.”
The spokesperson also denied claims that there was any kind of a bullying culture in the business.
He said: “Our success in Australia is driving higher-quality agents to our model.
“We would not have such positive feedback from customers (9.3 out of ten from over 2,600 reviews on Trustpilot); be growing so quickly; or be attracting such high quality talent if we had the bullying culture that has been alleged.”
Here are the latest Trustpilot reviews for the Australian business.
Comments (12)
Interestingly, on the LREE page, under every face there is a “Find out more about me” just like the UK
Only on the Aussie page, each one has a generic video extolling the utter brilliantness of the company. NOTHING about the person, as would be reasonably expected by the person clicking the link.
Still – I suppose it saves them having to read the cringe-inducing f*ckwittery (credit: Jonnie) that some of the UK bods have had to come up with…
A relative of mine, an agent, lives in a city 1.5 hours south of Sydney and has not really heard of pb. Business in Wollongong is good – not declining.
Im guessing that ‘if’ some places are making redundancies – firms let the weaker staff go first and that’s who pb they will be picking up.
On the subject of their Aussie “Trust”Pilot reviews – here’s one from Page 1:
au.trustpilot.com/users/5b2cc48b4de5666d3448a64e
As can be seen, the reviewer, “Alan”, states “I’m in Melbourne and the property was in Brisbane…”
But… but… but why, then, does his profile – and this is the person’s first review so it could be reasonably assumed that it is newly created…) state it was created in FRANCE??
#Funny_That…
Must be time for a new territory roll out and another round of investors money shortly
Selling ‘Real Estate’ on the moon 😉
Become a ‘real’ Scottish Lord of The Manor…?
Hardmans accompanied Bricks launch into OZ in a very bullish fashion in their report to the investment community in Sept 2016 .They announced that it was likely to reach 75% of UK revenue The end of second year of launch fast approaching and even allowing for the extra fees in OZ it’s a long way short of UK at the same stage of the journey.
In fact growth since last autumn despite roll outs has been rather pedestrian compared to UK rocket ships at the same stage .Having hit about 1315 instructions listed in October 2017 today’s current offering of under 1570 means they are going to have to pedal like mad to get within 25 % of UK where current listings total 19,000 . The target set looking to be an impossible one
Difficult to tell how they are progressing in US. You can see the individual brokers score on the door at Zillow and Realtor . Some with very few instructions .Bricks have been particularly coy. This guy looks to be the star player with a whopping 41 sales some of which could be before his arrival at Bricks
https://www.zillow.com/profile/GilDominguez/
https://www.zillow.com/agent-finder/real-estate-agent-reviews/?name=purplebricks
That’s sort of informed post will have the malcontent mallard laying an egg. How very dare you post “misleading” actual fact that contradicts and undermines their marketing du jour?
Robert, the only people I have a problem with are people like you who only tell part of a story in order to mislead or who speculate & use innuendo.
““The net number of agents in the field in Australia is unchanged from March, despite some churn.”
Perhaps that’s right but back in September 2017, according to Zeus Capital and my own data, they had over 100 LPEs in Oz. Today they have 88.
If the market over there is suffering then it’s understandable but with a £5m loss in H1 2018 (Australia only) it’s not what they were originally hoping for.
What you don’t like is not being top drake on the pond.
Let’s face it you’re angry Terry, I’m Gareth.
You thought you were saving thousands through not using the #local agent with the best house in the area and a big car. I knew you wouldn’t.
You made a bad choice of agent and even in the face of all the evidence that things did not go as the hype suggested it would, you won’t ever admit the successful #local agent who has a good house and car has that because he is good at what he does.
Oh, dear, ducky…
You draw attention to the statement
““The net number of agents in the field in Australia is unchanged from March, despite some churn.”
Then you chip in with
“Perhaps that’s right but back in September 2017, according to Zeus Capital and my own data, they had over 100 LPEs in Oz. Today they have 88.”
So… let’s do the maths – based upon your figures.
100* – 88 + 18 =?
*Plus the (x) that is the “over” in your statement.
PLUS. apparently, nine more that were hired March/April before the ones confirmed in the statement, if the AFR figure is correct.
That’s a quarter-plus of the workforce – and potentially a far larger fraction – now in chewing away in greener fields, ducky.
Bit like the UK, I guess…
Methinks they doth protest too much