Foxtons reported a large drop, of over £1m, in sales revenue for the first three months of this year.
The agent said that the London property market remains “very challenging” with sales volumes continuing to be at “record low levels”.
Sales revenue for the first quarter of this year was £7.1m, compared with £8.2m in the first quarter of last year.
Overall, group revenue was £23.8, down from £24,5m, in the three months to the end of March. Lettings revenue was slightly ahead at £14.6m, compared with £14.3m, while mortgage revenue was static at £2m.
Tellingly, Foxtons said that “there was no change to market conditions during April”.
However, the firm reiterated its strong financial position, with a net cash balance of £15m at the end of March, up from £12m a year ago.
Foxtons was not due to issue a trading update this morning, but did so ahead of its AGM today. Its share price is currently 60p.
Meanwhile Purplebricks shares start the new week trading at close to their £1 launch price on the stock exchange after slipping on Friday.
They fell some 4% during the day to around 103p, and finished on 104p.
This was despite a vote of confidence earlier in the week, when Toscafund acquired a stake of 5.6% in Purplebricks shares. Toscafund already backs online agents easyProperty and HouseSimple.
There is also speculation that a new major backer – possible General Atlantic, a global equity firm with a track record of investing in real estate including Duabi-based Property Finder – may be eying up investment in Purplebricks.
Separately, Rightmove shares traded at a high at the end of last week, reaching 573p – valuing the business at over £5bn.
The shares finished the week at 568p.
Rightmove also announced a new director, appointing Amit Tiwari to a non-executive position. He is managing director of Vitruvian Partners and was previously head of equities at the Lakshmi Mittall Family Office.
Comments (23)
PB Share price hit £1.00 this afternoon.
Closed 101p … will it be 95p by end of week? Didn’t an analyst say if it dropped below £1 it would be game over for PB?
Actually dropped to 90p during the week and closed Friday 101p when announced two interested parties in a take over …. rumours and every likelihood will drop back again next week? No positive media news about PB from around the world, just doom and gloom.
Have Rightmove effectively seen off the challenge of OTM then? I see OTM haven’t reported agent branch listings of 13000 yet after quickly rising from 11500 to 12500 and announcing on every 500 increase.
Did some research this morning of sales agents within 30 miles of Ipswich. Preliminary figures that need checking but the numbers were RM 510 branches, OTM 230. Out of the 230 OTM branches only 17 of them didn’t also list on Rightmove.
It would me misleading not to say that when I looked at Glasgow & Newcastle the picture was different but I included letting agents and that might explain the difference. I need to check. For Glasgow RM had 702, OTM 454 but 114 of the OTM branches didn’t list on RM.
Like I say, I need to check those figures.
Sub £1.00 today maybe?
less than a penny left to go
Come on PB the share price roller coaster is almost back to the start……………
So they have spent how many £m’s over the years and they are only achieving 2.9% of the housing market listed (included false re-listings) and we need to be worried.
What an investment opportunity for a savvy investor, buy while cheap value and go nowhere as the business model hasn’t changed and very unlikely to, as it is sold to the consumer on commissary, its own lead weight around its neck.
Purple Bricks share price collapsing now at 101p.
It feels interesting to me that anyone who has jumped in heavily since 500p has got their fingers burned. Yet still they jump in heavily. Toscafund being a firm that also already had their fingers burned in the call centre property sector. It’s a real head-scratcher.
At ON THE MARKET we only allow honest estate No Sale No Fee agents to list with us… we dont allow PayAnyWay agents.
The only way agents can survive the online lies is to band together….. we have shown this is inpossible…but…. we are all on OnTheMarket – which is also going nowhere…
this is our vehicle.
SORT IT OUT ON THE MARKET – this is your USP.
Territory Owners’ original 5 year licenses are coming to an end (for the original people that came on board) and a lot of their licenses are not being renewed.
Not sure if they’re being told to leave or being made LPE’s but it’s interesting to see how many of these licenses are not renewed…..
This tells us a lot about the internal state of affairs.
As someone who worked there, I have heard some stories of TO’s leaving and also rumours are that they were paid much more than the current TO level, which in my opinion makes it totally unattractive to bother having a territory (with all the headaches created for you in dealing with complaints – as PB pass the buck down the line). The model just doesn’t work, and the fee is so low they have to cut too many corners and get paid £484 for each solicitor referral which is mandatory if you don’t want to pay the fee prior to listing (which few do).
It’s still a £ too much!
In relation to the share price, Prophet’n’Loss said on 9 May
“the free fall has stopped so the only was is up!”
Weren’t they 107 or 108 that day?
Sitting at 101.4 at the time of posting this.
Some prophet, huh…?
(…which is, coincidentally, what PB can only hope to aspire to, SEVEN YEARS down the line.)
His ability to ignore facts that don’t suit his narrative or support his opinion means that he could well argue that 101.4 is an improvement on 107 or 108 on the basis that in his opinion they can only go up, therefore they must have gone up!
Im no investment expert either but I can see why other investors may be interested if theyve dropped Aus and some US states
Some of the earlier investors have already taken a hit and theyve learnt (possibly?) a thing or two.along the way
In the light of the changing UK market its not guaranteed to they’ll make a profit even with those changes….but
If you can achieve a dominant position in a market …say for example Autotrader… your offering becomes a norm and you can move prices north later….
They do not offer the hand holding service that high street agents do….but having said that I know plenty of high street agents whose idea of sales progression is letting all the other agents in the chain do everything. Im sure you know the ones….. The public dont normally see the value of that.
It will be an interesting time ahead as high street fees gravitate downwards due to lack of stock and agents fighting over the instruction (at least where I work). Will this have affect the growth of online as the fee differential narrows?
ps I am pro high street
New USA chief!! Note the word Interim .Just overseeing the closure ?
http://www.lse.co.uk/share-regulatory-news.asp?shareprice=PURP&ArticleCode=kguwsax4&ArticleHeadline=Purplebricks_appoints_interim_CEO_for_US_business
Wow! Is he one of the Felice Brothers (google them) whose 2016 album Life in the Dark has a track on it entitled ‘Sell the House’? And whose 2006 album Through these Reins and Gone has a track called ‘Going, Going, Gone’.
Yes. Really.
I wonder if the pending Class Action from all the Ex Employee’s who were burnt in OZ will effect the share price too?
Do tell more.
I’m no investment expert, but it amazes me that these people keep chucking their money in. The share price has tanked for a reason, long term this company just doesnt work. No smoke and mirrors re the reviews or number of completed transactions can hide the fact estate agency is different to selling anything else.
That dimwit Quirk kept trying to compare what we do to Amazon and it just proved that he knew nothing about the business either.
Better going down the casino and shoving it on red or black.
This will be General Atlantic’s investment which will not work, but will keep PB hopping along for a bit longer.
…..fools & their money are soon parted!