Purplebricks has by far the most SSTC properties on Rightmove, new figures show

New figures show that as a brand Purplebricks had by far and away the most properties marked as Sold Subject to Contract on Rightmove last year.

Altogether, it had 49,166 unique properties marked as SSTC in 2019 – a 5.7% market share of SSTC properties on the portal.

Next comes William H Brown with 12,535 and SSTC market share of 1.5% on Rightmove, followed by Hunters (10,995), Connells (9,982), haart (8,406), Your Move (6,254) and then another hybrid agency, Yopa, with 6,185.

Countrywide’s Bairstow Eves brand follows with 5,110, and then Housesimple with 4,708.

Savills, Reeds Rains, Winkworth, Bridgfords, Wards and Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward make up the remainder of the top 15.

The figures are revealed in new research covering every postcode in England, Scotland and Wales, which has been compiled from Rightmove Intel data.

The data is for every home marked SSTC last year, meaning that if a home was marked SSTC twice or more during the year, it was still only counted once.

The statistics, compiled by a researcher with access to the data and who has no connections to any PR or marketing firm, looks at some 7,000 brands and over 14,200 branches which list on Rightmove.

On this Rightmove list of branches are ‘areas’ and in some cases ‘national’ areas which are covered by online agents.

While these areas cannot be compared with the far smaller territories covered by high street branches, it is still striking to see the numbers.

Top is Purplebricks covering central England with 9,782 properties marked as SSTC last year; Purplebricks London, Scotland, Yorkshire, the North-West, Anglia and Meridian come after this.

Express Estate Agency (national), House Simple (Yorkshire) and Purplebricks (Wales) and Springbok Properties (nationwide) follow.

The first ‘traditional’ agency is in 14th place – a Scottish firm of agents and solicitors, Mov8, with 1,159 SSTC properties on Rightmove last year.

Other Purplebricks, Housesimple and Yopa areas take up a number of the top 40 places, with EweMove’s Yorkshire & Humber business coming in at 40th place. Another online firm, 99home, is in 48th place.

Traditional firms in the top 40 include another Scottish firm, McEwan Fraser Legal, Welsh firm Pinkmove, and Nottingham agent HoldenCopley.

Connells’ Wolverhampton office heads the national high street chains’ in 50th place, with 472 SSTC properties.

The researcher – who we are not identifying – has also produced from Rightmove Intel a list of the top 100 branches excluding ‘nationwide’ agents – effectively, the online/hybrid sector.

Headed by Mov8, McEwan Fraser Legal, Pinkmove and HoldenCopley, Connells’ Wolverhampton branch bounces up to 17th place.

Geographically, the top 100 branches seem well spread, but strikingly, not one is in London – an indication of the limited stock in the capital.

The researcher collected the data between January 1 and December 31 last year, including all house types and flats but not commercial properties, and merged it all on to a single Excel document.

The researcher did the same exercise in 2018, which showed that Purplebricks had 47,636 properties marked as SSTC on Rightmove – little different from the 49,166 last year.

The researcher’s data also shows 14,217 branches on Rightmove last year, compared with 14,262 in 2018. Average sales per branch last year were 60, compared with 59 the year before.

 

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55 Comments

  1. Not Surprised

    Is that because vendors have not fallen through their sale when it collapses and the LPE is unaware?

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    1. Bless You

      Bricks (a rip off payanyway scheme) shouldn’t be on the platform in the first place.

      They are just lucky our trading standards and gov’t. Only act when the daily mail kick off…

      But don’t the mail have shares in them? Rip off Britain.

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      1. Michelle Lockwood

        You’re an idiot. Get on with your work; there’s a spillage on aisle 4 and checkout 8 needs a toilet  break.

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        1. Property Pundit

          Thought you would be doing Dry January. Or is it just dry wine, dry gin, etc?

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  2. David Clark

    We’ve found so-called sales by PB that are chains with no ‘bottom’ – sales agreed just to call it a ‘sale’.

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    1. Michelle Lockwood

      Blah, blah, blah….. I found several High Street agents all advertising the same property as sold. You’re all dishonest so you assume everyone else is

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      1. PeeBee

        No, Mr/Mrs/Ms/’They’ (delete as appropriate) those Agents are being totally honest – as per industry regulations…
         
        …which of course you know sweet bu99er all about.
         
        Ignorance isn’t always bliss – but I guess it’s what puts you on cloud nine.
         
        That – and the gin, that is…

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  3. TwitterSalisPropNews

    Just don’t see Purple Bricks any more. Lessons learnt by the public.

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    1. TwitterSalisPropNews

      I kid you not, they just emailed me today – sale completed 3 December to say:
      “Good afternoon
      Please can you confirm whether the above property has completed If so, please can you confirm the date the property completed so we may update our files accordingly
      Kind regards  “

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  4. agent37

    Come on everyone, spin it so it’s actually bad or wrong or misleading.

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  5. Ric

    Does anyone know what PB pay RM for membership?

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    1. Michelle Lockwood

      What do you pay?

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      1. Ric

        £1,750 for 1 Branch.

        If that helps?

        I assume you have no idea then Michelle.

        Hope this helps you though.

        Anyone else have an idea?

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  6. Ostrich17

    “Average sales per branch last year were 60, compared with 59 the year before.”

    So RM take £200 from each sale (assuming the average agent pays £1000pcm to list on the portal) – if RM charge onliners proportionately, the cost for PB to advertise would be more than £10million p.a.

    Does anyone know whether PB pay this much?

     

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    1. Property Pundit

      Good question, doubt the answer will come from RM, but with the level of PB’s marketing spend, it’s absolutely feasible.

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      1. Ostrich17

        I think it was mentioned, in the last 12 months, that PB were paying Zoopla more than RM.

        Assuming RM have quickly corrected that anomaly by issuing a double-digit % increase, it still remains that online agents are particularly vulnerable to RM flexing it’s muscles and imposing eye-watering increases !

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    2. Michelle Lockwood

      You’re funny! 

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  7. agent37

    Worth pointing out that the PB system can’t double list or duplicate, or fake a sale, so the stats are fairly accurate, whereas every time I do a best price guide, I find a few houses that seem to have been sold by multiple agents. That investor John Smith must buy a lot of their old stock just before it withdraws eh?

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    1. AgentQ73

      Worth pointing out that in my patch, Manchester, PB have changed their branch from PB covering the North West to PB covering Manchester. Which has caused all their stock to show back up as new, possible the sstc stock when this happened was counted twice ?

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      1. Shaun77

        You should notify the portals, as they don’t allow ‘toggling’ of listings to make them appear as new instructions.

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        1. AgentQ73

          I did, got the standard response.

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          1. Michelle Lockwood

            I don’t believe you did. When I report anything to RM they follow up dilegently and I receive several follow up emails.

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            1. AgentQ73

              As i put above i got the standard response in the standard timescale, if you are an agent and you have made reports you will know exactly what it is i am talking about.

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              1. PeeBee

                You’ve missed her/him/it/’they’, AgentQ73…

                …the call of the gin bottle was too strong to fight.

                Come back in a fortnight to see if you got a response.

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                1. PeeBee

                  “When I report anything to RM they follow up dilegently…”

                  Looks like the gin was kicking in big-style even before the stroke of midday…

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    2. PeeBee

      “Worth pointing out that the PB system can’t double list or duplicate, or fake a sale…”
      REALLY?
      They’ve made some pretty big changes, then…

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      1. ValueCounts31

        Where is the report or site with these statistics / league tables?

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      2. Michelle Lockwood

        No changes needed. It’s always been the case. How is it that you seem to know everything but can’t list for toffee?

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    3. Woodentop

      I would go along with that as I have been monitoring their listing on RM for 2019 in two towns. Haven’t found a double listing, I have however noticed some questionable re-listings where they are listed days before a price reduction on RM, so for 2020 will be keeping a closer eye out and there are many long time SSTC, so are they being left up on RM and completed or should have been withdrawn from marketing?
       
      For the second half of 2019 listings showing today on RM were 5.8% of market share with 26% listed been reduced, 40% as SSTC (now waiting till end of year to check on Land Registry to see if they really did sell) and of those SSTC 25% had price reduced. As these two towns can be considered as average UK property values/economy to match PB claims of national performance it would seem to justify agents claims at the coal face that PB are not achieving performance they would have us believe. For 40% SSTC there has to be a fall through rate, so to claim they sell (we ask for completed sales) most of their properties is way off the mark and is going to be near 30%? The next half year should be interesting reading and they have reached a plato?
       
      Data source: Rightmove listings by PB/LPE.

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  8. EAMD172

    Does the data include properties marked as under offer instead of sstc? We don’t use sstc until exchange just so we can differentiate. I know of others who don’t use sstc at all.

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  9. GPL

     
    Evidence that PB is also at the forefront of “recycling” in terms of the same property appearing for sale/sstc/for sale/new to market/sstc/for sale…..etc
     
    More spinning going on than a laundrette (remember those!)
     
    It would be a revelation to see a breakdown of each PB property sale history and understand how it’s “life” cycle has affected the real statistical picture.  
     

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    1. Michelle Lockwood

      You show me yours and I’ll show you mine

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  10. PeeBee

    “The data is for every home marked SSTC last year, meaning that if a home was marked SSTC twice or more during the year, it was still only counted once.”

    I would very much like to know how this information is ascertained and verified.

    Perhaps “the researcher” would be willing to advise accordingly?

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    1. Michelle Lockwood

      Perhaps you could try thinking before posting. 

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      1. PeeBee

        Welcome back Mr/Mrs/Ms/’They’ Lockwood (delete as appropriate)
         
        You’ve been missed!  Last seen on the pages of EYE sometime late 2019…
         
        …that’s one H£LL of a gin-induced comatose state you’ve obviously been suffering from.

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        1. ARC

          He/She/It/They has gone off the deep end it appears with a series of one line outbursts at posters on here that appear to have been given without reading the post first!

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          1. Property Pundit

            A syndrome called ‘Posting Tourettes’

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            1. ARC

              Thats certainly how it appears as there is little or no sense to the postings!

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          2. htsnom79

            ARC

            She/He/It/They

             

            Fixed that for ya 🙂

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            1. Woodentop

              Now Michelle Lockwood … that is funny.

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  11. HMHB49

    Yesterday, on their site, Purplebricks were advertising 16,881 properties for sale. Including SSTC that figure increased to 32,447. On 28/1/19 the corresponding numbers were 20,168 and 33.552.

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    1. PeeBee

      In addition, HMHB49 – on 14/1/19, the “Average listing age” on Zoopla was 20 weeks.  During the year, it dropped as low as 18.
       
      Yesterday – it stood at 23.

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  12. paul.williams

    Why only quote Bairstow Eves and their figures when Countrywide PLC whole figures would be more impressive !

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    1. ARC

      They’ve closed so many branches that there’s only Bairstow Eves left isn’t there?

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  13. mattr83

    “The researcher – who we are not identifying”. Seems odd to me

    Not questioning the data at all. Properganda PR?

    If anyone saw their data for an average commission paid. I would never declare them as my source

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  14. PeeBee

    Dearest Frau Renshaw.
     
    Could you please ask the researcher that has furnished you with these figures two things:
     
    1. How they establish the properties to be “unique” listings on Rightmove?
     
    2. How many “unique” listings were there on Rightmove in the period to produce these 49166 “SSTCs” ?
     
    3. How many of the said 49166 “SSTCs” subsequently fell through?
     
    Thank you in anticipation.

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    1. Woodentop

      I have no doubts that Frau Frenshaw will do her best … what a story it will make, but the chances of getting a truthful or any answer are as good at ever finding rocking horse dropping.

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      1. PeeBee

        I hope you are wrong, Woodentop – if the researcher is confident of the findings they have nothing to lose by sharing the information… quite the reverse.
         
        The PurpleOnes have consistently avoided providing certain information for years – as it would irrefutably disprove their ******** claims and their PurpleWalls would come tumbling down as a result.
         
        The PurpleEmperor’s cloak is no longer concealing anything to the industry – we can all clearly see his winky (credit: Robert May) – but somehow the pathetic little member remains shielded from the view of those that are there to protect the public from such things.

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    2. Ostrich17

      “The researcher’s data also shows 14,217 branches on Rightmove last year, compared with 14,262 in 2018.”

       

      Maybe, just quiz the “researcher” on the above stat – as it doesn’t seem to tally with the figures published in RM results.

      In July they reported Agency Branches as 16,768 down 3% in six months !!

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  15. houseseller

    I think we all know the figures are a load of rubbish so I for one will focus on what I do and let PB hang themselves with a long rope

    #HMRC #made up #who on earth is this Michelle lady !Hilarious

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    1. PeeBee

      houseseller
       
      “I think we all know the figures are a load of rubbish…”
       
      I’m not discounting them so quickly – they are meant to be completely independent and unbiased – but I want more info.
       
      “…so I for one will focus on what I do and let PB hang themselves with a long rope”
       
      But that’s the thing – they aren’t! 
       
      They are seemingly
       
      a.  flying under every single watchdog’s radar;
      b.  as invisible as the cloak they have worn for the last seven years
      or
      c.  being allowed to break virtually every rule in the book without any sign of redress.
       
      Regardless of which is the more likely answer – or if there is another more sensible explanation, simply “turning off” from the goings-on is not going to accomplish anything.  There has to be a point where someone calls time on the *********** (credit: Jonnie) if enough noise is made about it. 
       
      I concede that the longer it goes seemingly unnoticed the more it seems unlikely that the hammer will fall – but I remain hopeful, and will continue to annoy people left, right and centre until something positive happens.

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      1. Woodentop

        Isn’t there a case for TPO or NTSEAT to investigate PB sales claims in the consumer interest of not being duped with parting with their money on claims of performance and advertising “they are the same as the high street”? It has been going on for so many years and so much evidence suggests they could be misleading the public and nothing is being done. If a consumer complains they were misled by a high street agent, they are soon off the mark but as we have come to learn, these regulatory organisations are not fit for purpose.

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        1. PeeBee

          ASA, TPOs and NTSLEAT are seemingly avoiding any investigation of Purplebricks – or any other ‘online’ Agency making false and misleading claims or statements – like the plague.
          It’s almost like they are being stopped from doing their job…

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  16. andrew.stanton

    Now that is interesting – and without the co-operation of both Rightmove and Purplebricks we will never know, but are we getting closer to knowing the true conversion rate of listings of Purplebricks to exchanges.

    Let us agree that 49,000 properties showed up on Rightmove sstc by Purplebricks.

    Also let us agree that Purplebricks listed 60,000 properties last year.

    Let us agree, that the cancellation rate is 28%, for sstc to exchange of contracts as an industry norm.

    So, 49,000 Purplebricks sstc will have an element of sold and completed, sold and exchanged, sold and going to exchange, and 28% that are sold and are going to cancel/abort.

    Now we have 60,000 listed versus 49,000 sstc netting down to 35,280 exchanges.

    Which as a % of the 60,000 listings is an exchange to instruction rate of 59%. Which if correct means 41% of Purplebrick vendors pay an average of £1,300 for thin air or in mathematical terms 24,720 vendors at 1,300 = £32,136,000 of fee paid upfront for not having your home sold.

    Now I am very happy to be told the true figures and if my figures are wrong – I will be the first to admit it. If I am right or even in the correct ball park that is an awful lot of money going begging. Maybe it is time to know the true conversion figures?

    Because, on a no sale no fee model, a failed sale is a pain, but if you pay for a service and get nothing, and rely on another agent to sell, you pay twice.

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    1. Property Pundit

      Pay cheap, pay twice.

      Report
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