Something familiar is happening in the estate agency industry. Innovation is at its heart and this week was a catalyst that I’d argue heralds a turning point in modernising the way that property transactions are undertaken.
You may have heard me say this before. Well, in 2009 I truly believed that a certain new business model would transform the way that home sellers sold property.
I was wrong.
Just a few hundred million quid later and with many casualties, the fixed fee, so-called online estate agency sector has but one player left out of dozens and that’s YOPA with Verona Frankish crushing everyone else and now adding a brokerage model to her proposition. As are LSL.
Emoov, House Network, 99 Homes, Doorsteps… all perished. Yes, Purplebricks still exists as a Frankenstein of House Simple becomes Strike meets the Colour Purple but it’s hard to know what it is any more especially with rumours that it’s going ‘full DIY’ and, as it got sold for the same price as a bag of penny chews, it’s hardly a contender for any longevity awards.
On Wednesday it was announced that Steph Walker’s TAUK, The Agency UK, had acquired Chris Buckler’s The Estate Agency.
Not only does this ultimately halt any confusion over who’s who in name terms given their similar labeling, but this move by Steph and Andrew and their investor team of Kenny Bruce and Harry Hill, is smart (and may have even been inspired by a chat with Steph in the Two Russells podcast studio a year ago.
The TAUK stakeholders herald the deal as a consolidation play. A strategy straight out of the Alex Chesterman book of company roll-ups which is, I reckon, the beginning of the self-employed sector getting really serious.
There is no coincidence that Steph, Andrew and Kenny are all ex-Purplebricks. The PB team back in 2014 also grabbed the nettle by raising big money and powering onto the online agency stage with sharp-elbows out having sat for a couple of years observing the space. The result was a business that took market share from all estate agents but in particular the online guys and a PLC valuation that reached £1.2bn.
To replicate this may be more challenging than then. Because whilst the unit economics of the self-employed space are far, far better than the discounters of ten years ago with proper fees and far lower customer acquisition costs, there is a big player in the sector that has arguably already ‘done a Purplebricks’ and grabbed a huge market share advantage of agents and therefore transactions.
Enter stage left Adam Day. No one can disagree that Adam has propelled the UK version of eXp into the stratosphere with c.700 self employed agents – more than all of the other players put together. His proposition, tech, culture and his personality backed by a $2bn NASDAQ quoted US parent are a potent combination. Adam is THE big success in this space and Steph, Andrew, Chris and Co will have to work very, very hard and smart and spend proper money to get anywhere near him.
However, this time it’s different and maybe they don’t need to ‘win’?
In the online days, our maximum market share peaked at 8% of all UK property transactions based upon a customer proposition that was about cheap fees and a ‘punt’.
At full fee, arguably the UK’s best agents now ‘eating what they kill’ and low, low overheads, not only does the consumer not have to pay a self-employed agent or platform upfront or risk a cheap service for a cheap fee’ but the P&L numbers for agent and platform alike are good. Very good in fact. Totally the opposite dynamic actually.
I may have been wrong in my prophecy of the winning business model before but I’ll tell you this… the self-employed sector is going to grow. A lot. It may not get to 50% market share or even 25% vs branch based agency – but it doesn’t need to. The self-employed guys are not a threat to the high street, in fact their perceived superior service levels are complementary.
Note that the UK is just about the only country that DOESN’T have self-employed agents dominating their market.
So, rising tides float all boats so to speak and there’s going to be more than one winner here. TAUK, eXp, YOPA… they’re all well placed to earn a LOT of money in the coming years.
As the adage goes, watch this space. No, really. I’m right this time.
Russell Quirk is the opinionated co-founder of ProperPR, the property public relations agency.
Excellent piece “Mr Q” !
I’ve no idea what the self employed estate agent market share figure will eventually be but…
Is there anyone who doesn’t think it will expand considerably over the next few years?
Answers below…
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The answer to your question, Simon, is exactly the same as it was in 2013, and every year since.
The exceptional agents—the ones who were too often undervalued, under-supported, or overlooked by their bosses—now have a viable alternative. They finally have a choice.
That’s what’s fuelling this shift. Not hype, not trend, but talented individuals like Katy, who you once managed and who is now clearly thriving in a model that allows her to focus on what she does best. Her patch is small and intimate, which suits her strengths perfectly. That’s where the self-employed model sings.
As for where this all ends up—who knows? But it doesn’t need to take over the world to be a success. It just needs to keep being a credible option for agents who no longer need permission to excel.
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I completely agree with what you said Robert
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There’s something oddly comforting in your consistency. Once again, you’ve taken a long look in the rear-view mirror and announced, without a hint of irony, that you WERE wrong, but in a face-saving way.
I applaud your candour. It takes a distinct confidence, some might say a brass neck, to reframe past misfires as prescient observations simply waiting for the market to catch up.
Back in 2013, your conviction was absolute. The disruptor model would triumph. Traditional agents were on borrowed time. Vendors would flock to your shiny new future. I remember saying at the time, publicly and repeatedly, that distribution without skill was never going to work. That estate agency isn’t just a job, it’s a profession. One that requires, above all, good agents.
You dismissed that, of course, with gusto.
I recall posting to The Hound, off to folk singing in Dorset, as it happens—a random fact that’s stuck with me—that Ewemove, unlike Hatched and Emoov, understood this subtle point. It gave capable agents the tools and the autonomy to thrive. That distinction wasn’t popular with the disruptor crowd at the time, but it turns out it aged rather well.
Now, all these years and several hundred million pounds later, you’ve discovered that good agents actually matter. That support matters. That leadership matters. Welcome.
You say you’re right this time. Maybe. But let’s not skip over the cost of your previous certainty—careers derailed, investors burned, and a public misled by promises of simplicity where there was only structural naivety.
So yes, it’s good to see you on the side of the angels. You’ve spotted what those of us who kept the faith in #local, skilled agency have known all along, that the future belongs not to the cheapest, the loudest, or the most tech-laden, but to those who understand that trust, talent and territory still win the day.
Now, if we could just get an apology for the bombast that accompanied your wrongness, rather than a soft shuffle into ‘I told you so’ territory, we might all move forward that little bit lighter.
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Interesting viewpoints all round and thank you for your comments about EweMove Robert. It is true, we have provided a very traditional, high quality, personal agent model for the last 12 years, giving good people the tools and support they need to build a solid agency business, in an exclusive territory, so they aren’t competing with their local colleagues.
This allows them to focus wholly on the customer, whilst being able to secure a good, sometimes market-leading, fee for the premium service they provide.
Often from outside of the agency industry, EweMove franchisees have solid commercial, service and sales experiences, that see them shine through – the very reason we have won Best National Sales & Letting Agent at the EA Masters for the last three years in a row!
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As soon as Russel Burrington started making his mark Ewemove #local to me were obviously better than the other models.
The tech was stand out head and shoulders more agenty than anything else I was looking at at the time.
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Thanks Robert. We still look forward to the launch of your amazing, portal busting tech product. It’s like you’ve been pregnant for 10 years
Anyway, it’s a shame that no one listens to a thing you say. Best leave the comment and opinion to those of us that have the balls to actually take risks and to put their head above the parapet.
Of course you will never fail. Because you don’t have the courage to actually do anything to fail at, hence ‘Rummage’ has only ever been a doodle on a napkin.
You are one of this industry’s true wimps.
Back in your little box now. [Sentence removed as it breached posting rules]
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Every time I post a considered comment, I forget how much it seems to upset a particular type of person.
There’s always one who sees reflection as attack, disagreement as disloyalty, and professional discourse as a threat to the personal myth they’ve written for themselves.
I posted on this story because, beneath the supposed reflection, it read as an uncalled for attack—particularly on those like eXp and TAUK, who have learned lessons from earlier ventures and returned with well-founded, polished models. Rather than acknowledging that progress, the piece seemed more concerned with positioning others’ success as luck, timing, or faintly amusing coincidence.
What could have been a thoughtful analysis of how the self-employed model has matured, and how former disruptors have refined their propositions, instead turned into something defensive and dismissive. Backhanded praise, sarcasm disguised as insight, and unnecessary shots at individuals and businesses doing well now, especially Adam Day and Steph Walker, don’t reflect well on the author or the platform that publishes it.
I share my thoughts on trade stories not to provoke, but to offer an honest, considered perspective, grounded in experience, data, and a respect for the profession and those working in it.
Civility, professionalism, and the ability to debate without resorting to personal attack should, I think, remain a baseline expectation in a trade forum.
The agents and operators who tried, failed, adapted, and built something better deserve our respect, not ridicule. They’re contributing to a version of estate agency that’s far closer to what many of us were advocating back in 2013.
That kind of progress deserves encouragement, not sour grapes and envy.
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