Purplebricks ‘easily biggest agent brand in UK in terms of listings’, claim new league tables

New tables are claiming to show that Purplebricks is easily the single biggest branded agent in terms of listings in the UK.

Countrywide and Connells are shown as head to head with each other in terms of the market: both, with their number of brands, have overall listings just ahead of Purplebricks.

Emoov is rated as fourth in the online market.

http://www.ealeaguetables.co.uk/

EYE was offered this information last night, and we run it below, with the figures and explanations exactly as supplied to us.

EYE was also given similar information last December. The link to that is given at the end of this story.

Estate Agency Brand Table

  • This table shows the top 20 estate agency brands in the UK by number of available properties in October
Rank Estate Agency Brand Available Properties
1 Purplebricks (Hybrid/ Online) 21,299
2 Your Move (LSL) 6,618
3 William H. Brown (Connells) 6,355
4 Connells (Connells) 5,697
5 Haart (Spicerhaart) 5,546
6 Hunters 4,771
7 Reeds Rains (LSL) 4,565
8 Foxtons 3,783
9 Savills 3,725
10 YOPA (Hybrid/ Online) 3,524
11 Express Estate Agency (Hybrid/ Online) 3,352
12 Bairstow Eves (Countrywide) 2,949
13 Chancellors 2,937
14 Knight Frank 2,757
15 Hamptons (Countrywide) 2,605
16 Winkworth 2,458
17 Dexters 2,341
18 Bridgfords (Countrywide) 2,305
19 Pattinson Estate Agents 2,300
20 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward 2,236

 

Estate Agency Group Table

  • This table shows the top 20 estate agency groups in the UK by number of available properties in October
  • We have combined the brands for all estate agencies into groups
  • For example: Ward & Partners, Cubitt & West, Douglas Allen and Pittis are combined to give a grand total for Arun Estates
Rank Estate Agency Group Available Properties
1 Countrywide 23,639
2 Connells 23,202
3 Purplebricks (Hybrid/ Online) 21,299
4 LSL 11,938
5 Spicerhaart 7,439
6 The Property Franchise Group 5,331
7 Hunters 4,771
8 Arun Estates 3,968
9 Foxtons 3,783
10 Savills 3,725
11 YOPA (Hybrid/ Online) 3,524
12 Express Estate Agency (Hybrid/ Online) 3,352
13 Chancellors 2,937
14 Emoov/Tepilo (Hybrid/ Online) 2,935
15 Knight Frank 2,757
16 Leaders Romans Group 2,538
17 Winkworth 2,458
18 Dexters 2,341
19 Pattinson Estate Agents 2,300
20 Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward 2,236

 

Hybrid/ Online Estate Agency Table

  • This table shows the top 20 hybrid/ online estate agencies in the UK by number of available properties in October
Rank Hybrid/ Online Estate Agency Available Properties
1 Purplebricks 21,299
2 YOPA 3,524
3 Express Estate Agency 3,352
4 Emoov/Tepilo 2,935
5 Doorsteps.co.uk 1,394
6 Housesimple 1,121
7 Ewemove 1,004
8 EasyProperty.com 976
9 House Network 970
10 Springbok Properties 702
11 99Home.co.uk 390
12 Open House Estate Agents 379
13 British Homesellers 322
14 Hatched.co.uk 227
15 Bricks Mortar 213
16 Sellmyhome.co.uk 158
17 Getanoffer 131
18 SOLD.Co.Uk 127
19 Settled 114
20 Sell Simple Estate Agency 95

Here are key findings and general comments with the wording as supplied to EYE:

  • The tables have been generated based on data from October
  • The headline from our perspective is that Countrywide are now, albeit by a relatively small margin, the largest estate agency group in the UK (overtaking the Connells Group)
  • The High Street has remained resilient in terms of stock levels despite the efforts of the Hybrid/ Online Estate Agency disrupters
  • Listing levels from many of the London-centric agents have swollen due to the slower market there
  • Purplebricks is still comfortably the most prominent For Sale board in the country
  • Despite numerous claims of being a clear number two to Purplebricks following the merger, the ‘troubled’ Emoov/Tepilo Group sit (behind Purplebricks, YOPA and Express Estate Agency) in fourth position in the hybrid/ online estate agency table
  • Doorsteps claimed to be the tenth largest estate agency in the UK in their recent Crowdcube fundraiser. However,  in-depth analysis shows they are in fact the 32nd largest estate agency brand and 24th largest estate agency Group
  • easyProperty’s listings were taken from their website and then cross-referenced with the major property websites to see if they are currently available for sale
  • https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-is-biggest-in-uk-while-connells-overtake-countrywide-says-new-league-table/
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49 Comments

  1. Moveaside01

    For the record, any agent can list loads of properties if they tonk the asking price and then bend over on fee, there’s no skill in that?
    However, when you work on a no sale no fee basis you can’t afford to do this?
    But…..if you don’t need to sell them in order to get paid?
    You know where I’m going with this……  

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    1. WestMidsValuer97

      Absolutely, and you’ll be amazed how many no sale no fee agents out there are still doing this because they think a board is better than nothing and ultimately fail the clients….

      And they wonder why they get a bad name for themselves!

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      1. ringi

        Buyer also quickly learn when agents have many properties that are not truely for sale.

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    2. Sir Neil

      You have to smile at the protestations of the traditional high street agents as they are being permanently knocked off their pedestals by smarter and cleverer business models. Purplebricks are not perfect but I can tell you they compare favourably with all the agents I have used to build my property portfolio over the last 8 years. Try getting sense out of a high street agent on a Saturday/ Sunday when you walk in to be greeted by a friendly but fairly useless part timer. PB do most of their work at weekends… isn’t that when most of us are free to buy our houses or find tenants? Finally most businesses succeed or fail through the cash they raise.. the PB model takes fees upfront…. there’s so much sense in that from a business perspective. Im not anti the traditional agents but they need to get “smart” not “angry “ They are there to serve their customers not the other way round. I have no affiliation to PB or any other agents but I want good service. Im currently trialing PBs letting service, the IT systems are not yet up to the standard of those for sales and this needs to be sorted but their people are great and where else would I get a response to quieries at weekends and evenings      

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      1. PeeBee

        “Purplebricks are not perfect but I can tell you they compare favourably with all the agents I have used to build my property portfolio over the last 8 years.”

        Some could read that as meaning they’ll flog you stuff on the cheap because they haven’t got their vendors’ best interests at heart…

        …but I’m sure that wasn’t what you meant to point out.

        At all.

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  2. ArthurHouse02

    All well and good having the most properties “available”, but that really isnt what a vendor wants is it? They want their property sold? This is the data that these call centre listing companies refuse to provide, how many sales are they actually completing….not very many hence why Emoov are going pop!

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  3. Robert May

    From the website “The last time something similar was created was back in 2009”

    Sorry that’s not quite correct, we produce that report  and remove the doppelgänger duplications. We also identify 11 forms of  #portal juggling which are used to  distort  basic volume reports.

     

    A report likes this disguises the fact that about  78% of successful  re-sales are achieve by agents right at the bottom of the list in terms of volume by  agents who  achieve genuinely better prices without some of the shenanigans going on at the top of the list.

     

     

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    1. Shaun77

      Robert – why don’t you publish your list, minus the doppelgangers and shenanigans.

      I’m sure it would make interesting reading.

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      1. cyberduck46

        Yes Robert, why don’t you publish it?

         

        How many doppelgangers are there? Percentage-wise? Perhaps you’re making a big deal about nothing to make it look like your services are worth paying for?

         

        Just a percentage figure would be enough.

         

         

         

         

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        1. AgentQ73

          Hi Cyberduck

          Why do you just monitor PB new instructions and not what they sell or fail to sell ?

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          1. cyberduck46

            AgentQ73,
             
            Monitoring new instructions is a lot simpler.
             
            I spent quite a lot of time reviewing a sample of data I had which I think was about 400 listings. Perhaps the conversion ratio has changed slightly but I only need an approximation so I’m not going to invest time in writing any software.
             
             
             
             

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            1. AgentQ73

              Hi Cyberduck
              I just find it odd that you dont seem interested in if PB are able to supply the service they claim they do, solely interested in how many they can get on the market.

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              1. cyberduck46

                AgentQ73,

                 

                I am very interested in how many properties PB sell but it’s a lot of work and with quite a lot of effort. I’ve already done research and determined an approximate conversion rate which I think gives me a good idea.

                 

                Seeing as I’ve been good enough to answer your repeated questioning of me, can I ask how much research and effort you have put into determining PurpleBricks’ national conversion rate?

                 

                 

                 

                 

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                1. AgentQ73

                  Hi Cyberduck
                  None at all but then I dont put myself forward as a corrector of misconceptions and falsehoods.
                  What do you think their national conversion rate is ?
                   

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                  1. cyberduck46

                    AgentQ73,
                     
                    Without going back and checking I seem to recall that the conversion rate was about 70% from a small sample. Enough to convince me that the 14% figure being bandied around was complete and utter rubbish.
                     
                    Just because I correct people from time to time doesn’t mean I have the responsibility of maintaining an up to date conversion rate does it? Or do you think if I correct somebody then I need to know everything rather than just know something about what I’m correcting?
                     
                    So that’s the last time I answer any of your questions unless you challenge anything I’m claiming to be factual or relevant when it isn’t.
                     
                    I don’t see you questioning Robert May or anybody else with such vigour and let’s be frank all this doppelganger nonsense has very little bearing on the data above that has been presented. I think this needs to be flagged up don’t you? It’s not really doing your own industry any favours suggesting that “doppelgangers” make the above figures materially wrong is it?
                     
                    Do your own research. 
                     

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                    1. AgentQ73

                      Hi Cyberduck

                      “Just because I correct people from time to time doesn’t mean I have the responsibility of maintaining an up to date conversion rate does it? Or do you think if I correct somebody then I need to know everything rather than just know something about what I’m correcting?”

                      You don’t have any responsibility that I am aware of and you certainly don’t need to know everything, however I don’t think asking questions on an internet forum is unreasonable.

                      Not really sure why you have brought Robert May and Dopplegangers up as i have mentioned neither ?

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          2. Mark Walker

            Because they make their money at the point of listing, not selling.

            The funny thing is, they don’t actually make any money.  Just burn through £125 million of investors cash, then look for the next investors.  I’m reminded of Matthew McConaughey at the beginning of the Wolf of Wall Street:
            “Mark Hanna : The name of the game, moving the money from the client’s pocket to your pocket.
            Jordan Belfort : But if you can make your clients money at the same time it’s advantageous to everyone, correct?
            Mark Hanna : No.”

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            1. cyberduck46

              Mark,
               
              I did a little research yesterday evening and this morning into how well things are going for PB in California.
               
              It’s all very, very approximate but I’d say California’s first year compares pretty well with how well they did in the UK in their first year.
               
              Now Oz actually started off better in their first year than the UK but is clearly having problems in a tough market over there. I’m not going to start making predictions for the USA but I can certainly see why Axel Springer might be interested, even if it’s just hedging bets. To be honest I didn’t think they’d be doing as well.
               

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      2. cyberduck46

        Robert,
         
        I’m looking at one of your adverts from a while back on your twitter feed and it has a list of what look like results from an analysis of an agents listings. This shows 14123 listed as “clean for sale” and it says there are 9 “Doppels”.
         
        What’s that?  About half a percent discrepancy? 
         
        Which company is this?

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        1. Robert May

          MY TWEETS ARE NOT ADVERTS!!!!!!!!!

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        2. Ostrich17

          CD46

          Possibly the same company that experienced a 12% drop in instruction revenue from £762 in 2017 to £666 in 2018?

          Their minimum fee is £707.50 (£849 inc.Vat).

           

           

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          1. AgentQ73

            Think you will find they have just put their fees up.

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            1. Ostrich17

              AgentQ73
               
              Yes, now £899 inc.Vat – desperately trying to make an actual profit in the UK.
               
              How long before they introduce a NSNF option?

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              1. AgentQ73

                Think they have bumped London up £100

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              2. Thomas Flowers

                £399 viewing fees in London and surrounds up from £300 as well.

                Report
      3. Robert May

        There is very little pont in the list. Having 20,000+ listings doesn’t sell a property that is £200,000 overpriced   because it’s next to the village car wash and has all the locals washing their cars from 8 am every Sunday morning.
        The only thing this says is how many properties a firm has listed, it does not give any indication of performance.
        This is a great article to convince a few sheep investors that one day Messers Bruce & Woodford might eventually  deliver the huge profits they promised and the market share they predicted ebn though ih monitored month by month listing volumes vary
         

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        1. cyberduck46

          But the figures are more or less correct once you’ve taken into account doppelgangers? This wasn’t what you were implying when you mentioned doppelgangers and makes me wonder if you are just promoting yourself and your services with all these irrelevant buzzwords.

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          1. Robert May

            Irrelevant buzzwords? Shall we use a sentence instead? Identical properties  loaded multiple times  to game the portals and exaggerate the number of properties listed by an agent and provide a misleading representation of the number of properties sold, a breach of business protection regulations.
             
            I seem to remember you attempting to call me out on this before. You realised I hadn’t named a particular agent and  then fell silent when your trolling resulted in me tweeting an example by Purplebricks.

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            1. cyberduck46

              Robert,
               
              You’ll have to remind me what you are talking about in terms of silencing me. Perhaps I simply didn’t go back to see your reply because after a while I get bored. I’ll come back here around 3pm to see what you’ve got.
               
              >Identical properties  loaded multiple times  to game the portals and exaggerate the number of properties listed by an agent and provide a misleading representation of the number of properties sold, a breach of business protection regulations.
               
              OK, the breach of business regulations is a completely different subject. The question here is whether these “doppelgangers” are relevant in a material way to the above figures? Otherwise why would you mention them here? I would suggest the data above needs to be materially wrong to change the story in a significant way. The tweet I’m looking at from you suggests a discrepency of about 0.5% for a company with over 14000 listings going back to February. Perhaps this company that is in breach of business regulations is one of the ones that curently has less than 7000 listings?
               
              So do these “doppelgangers” materially affect the story above or are you just misleading people by implying they do? If the latter then what is your agenda for misleading people? Is it self promotion?
               
               

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              1. Robert May

                Isn’t it strange how you can separate breaches of regulations from a story because it is inconvenient to your agenda of envy?

                 

                My  original comment is about the quality of this published information not any particular agent. I sense  you  have read into my post something that wasn’t said, perhaps because  you  don’t have the ability to identify  detail and volume  in your limited attempts at  data analysis or because you thought I was referring to Purplebricks.

                 

                Either way you have reverted to type as I said you would to the people who identified your attempts to be civil

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                1. cyberduck46

                  Last run through of thread for the day.

                   

                  I note you haven’t reminded me of what you were talking about in regard to silencing me at some earlier time. That’s what I came back to see.

                   

                  >My  original comment is about the quality of this published information

                   

                  Yes, that’s what my point is and which you have successfully avoided answering (because I’m not asking again and I’m not coming back to check). Your tweet from some time back shows a discrepancy of about 0.5% for the top lister. Such a low percentage is of course immaterial in the context of this article.

                   

                  >Isn’t it strange how you can separate breaches of regulations from a story

                   

                  That’s because it has nothing to do with this story which is showing league tables of listings unless the league table positions or the numbers would be altered in any way by taking into account the pathetically small number of doppelgangers.

                   

                  In regard to the story that shines a light on your software, which is the one you would like to let everybody know about, I refer you once again to your tweet. The list appears to be for the top 5 listers in terms of the number of properties listed. If you want to bring attention to Agents’ breach of regulations then you should order by the percentage of doppelgangers to listings.

                   

                  In fact a 0.5% discrepancy could easily be down to software error or human error. The fact that you don’t order by percentage discrepancy suggests you aren’t really looking to expose the worst offenders in regard to breach of regulations but rather draw attention to one or more of the companies in your list. I see a common theme here!

                   

                  Incidentally, when selling my house the chain collapsed a month before completion and the house below mine in the chain was back on the market the next day as a new property in Rightmove. This is a local agent with probably 30 properties. A discrepancy of at least 3% there. I didn’t check their other listings.

                   

                  So your agenda is clear and it’s nothing to do with showing the worst Agents. Your constant attempts to suggest some higher moral purpose is just ridiculous.

                   

                  Next time I check your tweets I hope to find a “top 5” of alleged offenders with top position occupied by the agent with the lowest percentage of clean listings.

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

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                  1. Room101

                    Cyberduck46

                    Alternate headline might read –

                    Purplebricks, easily the biggest agent by number of over valued listings and house price reductions in the UK.

                    According to Zoopla your favourite purp friends are right up there, getting paid up front to over value property and list it on portals.  As close as makes no difference around 50% of their properties have received price reductions some as hefty as 40%+ and even then they take an average of 25 weeks to sell.

                    Well done, your defence of them does you proud.

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                    1. Room101

                      By comparison to the bricks shoddy stats on anything other than listings, I should have pointed out a traditional, no sale: no fee agent that has a terrible reputation locally (which I have first hand experience of) has 29 properties available with just 8 of those reduced by a maximum of 5% and an average sale time of 13 weeks.

                      And therein lies the ducks problem.  His position and one man crusade to justify the purp existence is based on his own pathetically small sample size and experience of agency from years gone by; which by his own rule of thumb makes him irrelevant and immaterial on most industry matters.

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                  2. Property Pundit

                    ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Still the most boring and pointless poster on here.

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        2. Dannyman4410

          Robert, that house has some very clean windows on it’s North West elevation, plus they get cleaned for free.

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  4. Property Poke In The Eye

    It’s not just about listings, it’s about the service you are providing your clients along with making a profit for your business.

    That’s why Emoov will go Into administration very soon followed by Purple Bricks.  These Vendor DIY platforms can’t survive current housing conditions.

     

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    1. WestMidsValuer97

      I totally agree.
      The other side of this coin is there must be some good salesmen/women within those brands as they hook the client into thinking it’s a good option but these people are taught basic lines to hoodwonk the client….they’re spoon-fed a script to work from.
      I can’t think of two valuations I’ve ever done that are the same!
      Then, the client goes on to realise the “agent” they have chosen has absolutely no clue and experience. Most probably just send the Rightmove stats report every week so it looks like they’re keeping an eye on things however, we all know that report means absolutely nothing unless you analyse it accurately.

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  5. AgentQ73

    Interesting to see express right up there without the marketing of PB or the high st presence of the corporates

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  6. OnlineEA

    Express consistently being up there is indeed interesting as they haven’t done the usual crowdfunding BS that many have.

    On that point, Doorsteps being called out on the BS is also refreshing! Their investors must be shaking in their boots watching Emoov collapsing, who were the Kings Of BS.  Faisal seems to be very quiet that’s for sure!

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  7. TwitterSalisPropNews53

    And none of us not associated with any in the top 10 would consider either using them ourselves or recommending them.

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  8. info@cantellandco.com

    PB 62.5% of instructions reduced in price in my area, Tepilo 75% hardly LPE’s !!!

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    1. Homestead38

      Similar in my area but no rhyme or reason as to the reductions being made, probably some best guess from the call centre trying to hit their target for the month.

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  9. r.speigal@spp-research.com

    This is a really interesting set of numbers. Can anyone elaborate on their provenance, please?

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  10. dantheman78

    Why does everyone on this site even get dragged into conversations with Dom and ducky, your all better than that guys, we all know where the experiment will end when the fools stop funding these companies

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    1. Property Pundit

      Agreed. They’re just pathetic wind-up merchants with too much time on their hands. Unfortunately duckface uses the attention he gets on here to puff up his deluded ego.

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  11. Dom_P

    Surely this data is largely meaningless in terms of demonstrating an agents performance at selling. I’d suggest that this needs an ‘average length of listing” to reflect that those with a very low available stock may actually be incredibly efficient at selling property and therefore they are not listed for very long, whereas an agent with a high listing number and long listing time is probably getting instructions left right and centre but maybe not selling them?

    Listing numbers in isolation is relatively meaningless in my opinion.

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  12. Thomas Flowers

    What, PB increase their fees just before they have to report next week.

     

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    1. Mark Walker

      Reminds me of that time a certain portal switched their invoice dating from the 1st of the month to days before the end of the month, just before they floated.

      Would have given them 13 months of invoicing for the price of 12.

      Nice work if you know what I mean.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.

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  13. Rollo

    Any agent can buy instructions by promising the world! Do they care if their stock sales or not? When your model is about charging customers upfront what is the motivation , what ever happens you bank a fee!

    The only true metrix in estate agency , is what is your conversation from stock to actual sales and in what time frame ? Do you value correctly or go high? Market share means nothing if your stock is not selling and you are letting down your clients .

    lets see how Purplebricks pans out over next 18 months .

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