New data covering the fortnight until yesterday evening is showing just how decisively Purplebricks is conquering the online estate agency sector.
However, the sector’s market share as a whole, in terms of new listings in the last two weeks, is just 4%.
Gavin Brazg, of The Advisory, released the latest analysis to EYE yesterday evening.
It disputes other analysis by Property Road, whose claims were featured by EYE this week.
The Advisory says that taking a monthly snapshot of active listings, as done by Property Road, is “interesting but of limited value”.
Its latest charts, covering the period December 26 to January 9, show that Purplebricks took 71.5% of all new listings secured by the top ten online estate agents.
Yopa, it said, is indisputably in second place, with 10.8% of all new listings.
easyProperty, says Brazg, has “failed to make the top ten having listed just three new properties in the last four days”.
The Advisory has also excluded some agents, notably EweMove, as it says this is a franchise operation that charges fees comparable to the high street. It has also excluded ‘quick sale’ firms, saying that these target sellers wanting to sell quickly rather than vendors looking to save on estate agents’ fees.
The Advisory took the following information from Zoopla.
However, covering the same the period, from Boxing Day to yesterday, the top ten online estate agents took just 4% of all new listings.
The Advisory says that in the last 14 days, the top online agents accounted for 2,145 new listings out of a total of 55,670.
The Advisory bases these numbers from listings on both Rightmove and Zoopla. It also underlines that the market share figure of 4% is based on listings and not sales.
Regarding new listings on Purplebricks, The Advisory says that these stand at 1,534 in the last two weeks.
While this figure is easily the lowest since tracking began last August, The Advisory does say that the numbers follow the market trend and seasonal slowdown.
Again, the data is taken from Zoopla, and this particular metric will be tracked this year.
The research is updated fortnightly here:
Comments (35)
How many LPE’s for PB’s are there in total? Also, how much on average do the LPE’s make per instruction?
About 3 shillings and six pence, plus a dribble from the conveyancing referral monies. Nothing at Christmas or while they are on holiday though.
Oh and they are expected to act like real estate agents the rest of the time now, not just floating around taking pictures and getting loan tickets for Close Brothers signed up.
In short, not enough.
PB have previously topped up the LPEs December pay packet but they didnt this year upsetting a fair few LPEs who were expecting it.
Been watching & recording Zoopla data since since February 2017.
PB growth certainly slowed but the period over Xmas & New year wasn’t exactly a good representation of 2018 as a whole. Not sure why this period has been used.
I’m not seeing any signs of growth so far this year but like I say it’s not the best time for comparisons.
About 7000 instructions in November according to the above data.
“…but like I say it’s not the best time for comparisons.”
So, ducky – the best time for comparisons in your eyes would apparently be only when the current performance is outpacing the past.
It certainly has been in your previous posts.
#Funny_that…
The best comparison would be over a longer time period. No 14 day period is ideal. Too short. Too small a sample.
Xmas & New Year is a particularly poor 14 day time period because each year is different with weekends & bank holidays & the number of working days. That’s for year on year comparisons.
If you look at PB’s data you will see it varies significantly from a weekday to a weekend.
Also, it occurred to me that if I was a self employed LPE earning comission I’d take time off in the Xmas and New Year period. Perhaps traditional agents think like this too but more so if you’re self employed I’d have thought.
Thought you’d be working a bit harder these days PeeBee. What exactly is your role over there on the Rummage4 sortal? Director of Objectivity? Director of ? Struggling to think of a role for you at a PropTech firm. Tech not exactly being your strong point. Still out hovering on forums so not vey busy. Do you still cover PB’s 1 star TrustPilot listings on your twitter feed now you are a Director? I don’t like twitter and I got a bit fed up with the bias so stopped following you.
Would you be able to comment on this post in regard to the Rummage4 sortal? https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/agent-who-complained-about-portal-juggling-by-competitor-sent-round-the-houses-by-regulators/ “R4 pulls the legs of SEO and PPC almost instantly and at almost no cost.”. A pretty impressive claim.
No.
Director of putting you back in your box. He does it VERY well…every time.
Average roughly 8,000 instructions a month over the year, would seem about right Duck?
No.
What is it then?
My proxy tells me about 5500 on average for 2018.
My proxy for PB’s market share over 2018 gave them about a 4% market share on average for new listings. On the 7th January 2018, for the first 7 days of the year my proxy had a figure of 3.18% market share. So the first 7 days was not a good representation of the year as a whole.
December 2018 PB declared 38,600 new instruction for the first half of the year which averages just over 6,000 a month. Lets be generous and say that was maintaind for the year (it certainly hasn’t increased).
The business is based on revenue first generated from new instructions (exclude investors chipping in, will become relevant in a second) and then the limited extra sales, if as it claims it is cheaper than the High Street.
6,000 x 12 = £72,000 revenue from instructions. PB declare administrive costs for the same six month period was £9.3m (lets not x 2, being generous). A shortfall of over £9m to cover 6 months expenses with 12 months new business.
It is a business soley reliant on investors/other income to stay afloat. It is not the success it wishes to make out. Without Spinger’s cash it could easily have gone out of business but unless it can find revenue from somewhere else, its days are numbered if that money runs out. The city should be advising sell, sell ,sell?
If we’re just talking about the UK then they are reporting a profit. No need for Springer’s cash if that continues.
Overseas is a different matter. I would anticipate more cash needed there.
Got to pop out now but if you look at the RNS when PB raised the cash from AS it said what it was for. It might have included some for development of the tech. platform from memory but I’m pretty sure that nearly all of it was for overseas expansion.
These are the fact posted by PB for the UK only operations. You walked straight into your own trap of wanting everything about PB to be factual and presented. Down and out for the count as far as any attempt to except the facts you so lovingly cherrish. And no they still haven’t made a profit and confirmed they made a loss after all for 2018. Maybe popping out is a good idea.
Woodentop
>6,000 x 12 = £72,000 revenue from instructions. PB declare administrive costs for the same six month period was £9.3m (lets not x 2, being generous). A shortfall of over £9m to cover 6 months expenses with 12 months new business.
I can assure you I’m not desperate for PB to be making a profit. PB have no affect whatsoever on my life. How about yours? It looks to me that you are desperate for them not to be making a profit.
I follow their progress purely because I used to own shares in them and am still interested in them as a company but I am fully invested in other companies which I think are better investments at this time. PB are just another potential investment but one that I know a lot about because of all the research I do on them.
I can’t make head or tail out of your calculations. Do you want to clarify? £72,000 revenue from instructions?
The reported UK revenue for the 6 months to the end of October (H1 2019) was £48.3m or £48.6m depending on which of the two standards you chose.
The costs PB account for separately are admin. costs, marketing costs and “cost of sales” and it’s not 100% clear what falls into each category.
Ancillary revenue. In the 12 month period to 31/4.18 they said that revenue was split in a ratio of 57:43 between instructions and ancillary revenue. In the following 6 month period, For H1 2019 I think they said the proportion of ancillary revenue had increased but am not sure if they gave the ratio.
Quite happy to discuss the figures with you for a while but not beyond 16:30.
It should read 6,000 x 12 = 72,000 revenue from instructions.
But as they declared £48m for 6 months, something certainly doesn’t add up with listings they claim as it would be no higher than £36m. At your figure for 550 instructions a month = £33m. This figure doesn’t add up either! But the important bit is, after all this revenue, taking a year instructions it still makes a loss. Its overheads are pretty much fixed, so the loses will continue and even grow in a reducing market .. which they seem to be finding.
Lower.
The problem is cost of brand awareness for these bods.
Advertising in any media is expensive, never mind in all media.
Funnily enough a well placed office in a prominent village or town is permanent advertising that is cheaper than being on the telly and £1.50 per click on google. And you become a business that Belongs to your community !!!
Just saying ……..
The High Street agents also contribute to the well-being of its local community with hands on service, jobs, direct and indirect support for other business’s, suppliers, rates and taxes that support funding your schools, health service etc and many go the extra mile as charity fund raisers. What do PB do?
If PB don’t make profit then there is no CT tax to pay.
If their Lexperst are self employed then they don’t pay any NI either.
So what do they contribute to the community they work in is a very good question.
10% Market share by 2020 not looking likely is it?!
…people keep complaining about Purplebricks – admittedly, its advertising is insulting (but this is more a reflection on PB – and all said, is just advertising). I remember the days when BSkyB – as it was then, was haemorrhaging money…
In 2019 PB’s market share was just 2.7% of all sales agreed in our area where they have multiple experts. No other ‘online only‘ agent featured. They only converted 54% of instructions to sales as well which means 46% of all their clients paid for nothing. Much like their investors actually
Because online agents operate on volumes with low margins they need a “sugar daddy” in the form of investors or a partner with deep pockets to even get them to break even let alone operating profits.
Purple Bricks’s have, with Axel Springer, a “partner with U.K. aspirations”.
A point not lost in analyst’s Mike DelPrete’s report and if, as the report says, Springer’s global focus is to get closer to the transaction itself, then it’s not only P.B.’s online competitiors in the firing line, it’s agents in general.
Good point, but seeing as the PB share price has dropped nearly 50% since Springer’s chucked a mind blowing £125 million squid into the pot? Therefore any future investments or plans they had are going to be £75 million lighter than they would have been?
Don’t forget to mention the millions of shares already cashed in and offloaded by the board as well as golden hello’s.
Springer was sucked in by the PB propaganda hype and as all the previous far bigger investors discovered over the last 3 decades …. will fail and regret his decision. This research poor’s scorn on how many instructions PB have been telling us? Averaging approx. 8,000 instructions a month roughly = £96,000 gross income PA. Come on Ducky explain viability of profitability on that one as a self sustaining business, let alone cover TV expenditure, their only source of outlet to the public. They have peaked on instructions and now are on the way down and any sign of a recession …. bang they are gone. Time for investors to cash in and get out what they can from there poor share values. The figures have never stacked up over the last 7 years … never will. Their share value is less than half of what they have hyped it should be at and business valuation is a joke with no tangible assets. Sooner or later someone will write a book on the biggest scandal in the property industry once it is all over?
Woodentop
I think that is a stretch too far saying Axel were “sucked” in at all by the hype.Very much the grown ups in this relationship.
Maybe timed their entry into the game too early but they will be using Bricks as a vehicle over and beyond just simple property listings and plenty of bells and whistles to add.
It won’t be just a case of the online v High Street challenge
Without seeking to defend Bricks model or the company -let’s get the facts straight they are averaging well above 5,000 pcm not 4,000 pcm and still experiencing growth in the UK and profitable despite the grotesque marketing spend .
Jury is out for their overseas ambitions and share price has been subject to over exuberance but unless you have any evidence of fraud-a scandal no
Just look across the divide at the journey of CWD whose share price has plummeted from 600p to 9p and still in hock to the banks for a joke
Hillofwad71 – That’s possibly the most accurate comment to date on this subject.
https://www.propertyindustryeye.com/purplebricks-now-listing-over-20000-properties-on-zoopla
Lets be generous and call it 8,000 new listing a month. Now work out the gross income v expenditure and you say Springer & Co haven’t been sucked in. Certainly Springer has other add ons and agenda in mind but as a viable business PB certainly is not.
Not quite the market share projection forecasted to lure investors in?
Still, never mind investors. keep shovelling the cash in, its only money, though other people’s money admittedly!
1000 listings sounds very impressive . Divide that by all the town’s in UK and it’s about 1.5 properties. So say 3 sales x £800 = £2400 ,a month . What does an lpe make off that?
Again it’s only Google AdWords and the bosses who win.
Don’t forget RM!