Purplebricks is by far and away the largest single estate agency brand in the UK, new figures show. However, Connells is the biggest agency group.
By number of listings, the figures claim, Purplebricks is over three times the size of the next nearest single brand, William H Brown, part of the Connells Group.
However, the figures claim that Purplebricks is down 24% from last year’s tables.
The figures also show that in terms of estate agency groups, Connells is first, followed by Countrywide and then Purplebricks.
The stats show that US models Keller Williams (152 listings with 141 agents and eXp UK 77 listings with 16 agents) have yet to make much progress in the UK.
Yesterday evening, Estate Agency League Tables released the figures exclusively to EYE.
We are unable to corroborate the figures or confirm the source.
However, this is the third successive year we have been exclusively given the figures for the estate agency league table, and we have been given these figures on the same basis for the last two years.
Numbers are said not to include properties under offer, commercial or new-builds.
The figures are said to have been compiled from a number of cross-referenced sources, including the property portals.
Here are the current estate agency available property league tables (as of December 2019), shown exactly as EYE has been given them.
Estate Agency Brand Table
- This table shows the top 20 estate agency brands in the UK by number of available properties in December 2019
| Rank | Estate Agency Brand | Available Properties |
| 1 | Purplebricks (Hybrid/ Online) | 16,284 |
| 2 | William H. Brown (Connells) | 5,316 |
| 3 | Connells (Connells) | 4,820 |
| 4 | Hunters | 4,758 |
| 5 | Your Move (LSL) | 4,661 |
| 6 | Haart (Spicerhaart) | 3,727 |
| 7 | Reeds Rains (LSL) | 3,074 |
| 8 | Express Estate Agency (Hybrid/ Online) | 2,807 |
| 9 | Savills | 2,660 |
| 10 | YOPA (Hybrid/ Online) | 2,477 |
| 11 | Foxtons | 2,471 |
| 12 | Chancellors | 2,342 |
| 13 | Dexters | 1,999 |
| 14 | Bairstow Eves (Countrywide) | 1,978 |
| 15 | Fine & Country | 1,962 |
| 16 | Wards | 1,944 |
| 17 | Pattinson Estate Agents | 1,919 |
| 18 | Bridgfords (Countrywide) | 1,859 |
| 19 | Farrell Heyworth | 1,807 |
| 20 | Knight Frank | 1,785 |
Estate Agency Group Table
- This table shows the top 20 estate agency groups in the UK by number of available properties in December 2019
- The compilers 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 | Connells | 19,294 |
| 2 | Countrywide | 17,143 |
| 3 | Purplebricks (Hybrid/ Online) | 16,284 |
| 4 | LSL | 8,351 |
| 5 | Spicerhaart | 5,333 |
| 6 | Hunters | 4,758 |
| 7 | Arun Estates | 4,057 |
| 8 | The Property Franchise Group | 3,441 |
| 9 | Express Estate Agency (Hybrid/ Online) | 2,807 |
| 10 | Savills | 2,660 |
| 11 | YOPA (Hybrid/ Online) | 2,477 |
| 12 | Foxtons | 2,471 |
| 13 | Chancellors | 2,342 |
| 14 | Dexters | 1,999 |
| 15 | Leaders Romans Group | 1,969 |
| 16 | Fine & Country | 1,962 |
| 17 | Pattinson Estate Agents | 1,919 |
| 18 | Farrell Heyworth | 1,807 |
| 19 | Knight Frank | 1,785 |
| 20 | Housesimple (Hybrid/ Online) | 1,779 |
Hybrid/ Online Estate Agency Table
- This table shows the top 20 hybrid/ online estate agencies in the UK by number of available properties in December 2019
| Rank | Hybrid/ Online Estate Agency | Available Properties |
| 1 | Purplebricks | 16,284 |
| 2 | Express Estate Agency | 2,807 |
| 3 | YOPA | 2,477 |
| 4 | Housesimple | 1,779 |
| 5 | Doorsteps.co.uk | 1,253 |
| 6 | Ewemove | 792 |
| 7 | Springbok Properties | 728 |
| 8 | British Homesellers | 455 |
| 9 | 99Home.co.uk | 365 |
| 10 | Open House Estate Agents | 251 |
| 11 | Bettermove | 164 |
| 12 | Getanoffer | 153 |
| 13 | Keller Williams | 152 |
| 14 | Imovehome.Com | 152 |
| 15 | Online Estate Agents | 130 |
| 16 | SOLD.Co.Uk | 124 |
| 17 | Sellmyhome.co.uk | 122 |
| 18 | Emoov | 114 |
| 19 | EasyProperty.com | 112 |
| 20 | Elopa | 100 |
Here are some of the key findings and general comments by the compilers:
- The tables have been generated based on data from December 2019
- Stock levels are considerably down across the board compared to last year
- Connells are comfortably the largest estate agency group in the UK
- Purplebricks (down 24%) have been heavily hit since last year’s tables but still remain as the most prominent For Sale board in the country
- It is surprising to see the lack of progress made by Keller Williams (152 listings with 141 agents on their website) and eXp UK (77 listings with 16 agents on their website) especially with all of the fanfare and noise
- Also, Housesimple (1,779 listings) do not appear to be gathering much traction despite selling homes for free
Comments (46)
padymagic – it is Christmas once a year and your collective guardian angel likes you to break for the festivities knowing someone is looking after things by keeping an eye out.
fanks
I bin hitting the white lightning a bit hard this season
As they say statistics can prove anything you want them to, but here are a few pre-Christmas thoughts.
Purplebricks have over 500 Local property experts/listers who are self-employed owning their own company. This means that on average they each have listed for their company around 30 properties currently for sale. 16,000 instructions divided by 500 LPE’s.
Purplebricks unlike most other agents, turn each instruction into upfront cash, typically a spend by the vendor of £1,300, so that 16,284 of listings means close on 21M of fee in their bank, and that is just for listing. So, a good model for their cash flow.
But, why then do Purplebricks lose/burn around 3M more each month than they get as income?
In April 2018, they had 150M sitting in their bank according to their annual accounts, in the next 12 months despite taking to the market thousands of properties, they managed to burn through 7.5M of cash each month, more than their incoming cash, a staggering 90M burnt through in the year, leaving them with only 60M in the kitty by April 2019.
In their latest financial report, they have burnt through another 19M since April, leaving just over 41M. Which if they burn through 3M a month, means they will run out of cash in 14 months.
The reason perhaps Purplebricks has so many instructions is that it is ‘buying the market’ which is fine if you have the cash to keep the company moving forward, but unless there is another round of capital funding to underpin the company, it simply will run out of cash.
It was alright when private investors and the founders pumped their own money into the company, followed by capital generated by listing on the the Alternative Stock Market, etc, but, with the share price in the doldrums in real terms, and six major online agents withdrawing or being forced to withdraw I feel there is little appetite to get fresh investment.
The most likely outcome is that Axel Springer will take them private, re-jig the model, make it cheaper to run and it will service a certain sector of the market and type of vendor who is price sensitive to fee.
Perhaps, the lesson for other agents is that taking a fee of some description upfront, sale or no sale is not a bad idea, it helps with offsetting costs, gains commitment from the vendor and should help cash-flow, all positive things.
Back to statistics, having a huge market share of property for sale, is also not really a sign of anything, as we know that Connells or the Skipton building society – will return multi-million pound profits at the end of its financial year, whereas Countrywide who in this snapshot has only 11% less stock for sale is unlikely to be in the same position.
Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.
A sensible person on PIE ?
Ban him – this is not the place for sanity and reasoning
Good points, well made. Happy Christmas Sir.
Who cares about the multiples anymore – regional agents with out of touch Directors, nationals that have even less of an idea and on-line only that shout “show me the up-front money”.
Genuine agents are those who are in their community, giving back to their community and being the local experts their communities.
Wow
Didn’t fink we ‘ad peeps wiv brains on dis websight !!!
You guys realise that the LPEs get paid a lot more when the houses sell? You seem to always think they won’t care if their listings sell
My understanding is they get an extra £20 or so when it completes ? Not much of an incentive.
Wrong again
They get £41.67 when it completes and another £50 each way on legals. Bare in mind an individual agent on average agrees upto 20 sales a month and completes on around 15 a month with 70% signing up on pay laters.
“Bare in mind an individual agent on average agrees upto 20 sales a month and completes on around 15 a month…”
REALLY?
15 sales a month completing x 500 = 90000 per annum.
That’s more than they list. A LOT more.
Are you getting these figures from Diane Abbott’s numerical aide by any chance?
Or – more likely – the numpty that magics up the PurpleCEOs listings to “sales” percentages…
If you’ve never worked with them you will never know. Based on your contribution to these forums I doubt very much you would be good enough to join
“If you’ve never worked with them you will never know.”
Don’t need to work with them to know your maths is waaaaay out. Clue is in the word “average” – if only your understanding was anywhere near that level.
“Based on your contribution to these forums I doubt very much you would be good enough to join”
Actually, they couldn’t afford me, sunshine…
…and there are places I would work for free.
“Bare in mind an individual agent on average agrees upto 20 sales a month….”
PB’s own figures show 32,850 listings in the 6 months to October – your numbers suggest they have fewer than half the 500 claimed LPEs.
Instead of resorting to personal attacks, why not try and explain where PeeBee has got it wrong?
Ostrich17
The other… far more telling… thing in the ‘figures’ quoted by our esteemed mathematician insider is that when he? states
“…an individual agent on average agrees upto 20 sales a month…”.
Now – remembering the claims of past CEOs of the company… and most recently the current CEO Vic Darby stated
“We sell 77% of the houses we list”
that would strongly suggest the “up to 20 sales a month” would equate to ‘up to’ 26 listings. To then go on to actually completing fifteen of the above-stated twenty “sales”…
…equates to an actual completions to listings ratio of 57.7% – not a million miles away from the figure of 51.6% quoted in the Jefferies ‘Toss of a coin’ report two years ago.
#Funny_that
Not an EYE Exclusive either, it’s on t’other site this morning too.
Definitely PR “puffery” – I wonder who could be behind EAleaguetables ? 😉
And who the hell are Elopa ? 🙂 – are they based in Gretna Green?
Those properties might be on the market for over a year-or-two. Having the most unsold stock is nothing to shout about. As GeorgeHammond78 rightly says, agents are meant to sell the properties they bring to market.
I would have preferred to see what new listings each agent got, over a longer period of time.
Purplebricks – Pile them them High …then what do they do? They don’t know what to do, and don’t care, been paid, no need to do anything else.
Tales of regret from former Purplebricks Clients.
It would also be good to see properties listed and properties completed !! That may show a different story?
They don’t have accurate records for completed sales. Some will still show as sstc for months after completing if the seller uses their own solicitors
So where does PB stand as far as profitability and expenditure in the league tables?
Also brings into light that well oiled question ….. is PB an agent or a brand? I thought they claimed the LPE’s were the self employed agents, so the direct comparison with other agents is misleading spin and they are infact at the bottom of the pile by a long, long way.
It would be interesting to see the averages per branch on such a list.Althoguh I guess PB would be number 1 again ???
Good suggestion. Not that it would be entirely possible, but would also be interesting to show profits (total company profit and per branch), as the ultimate barometer of success? Clearly Connells would look good, but a ‘mixed bag’ beneath them, with the likes of Arun and Hunters faring well, but some of the others in the ‘top 10 large groups’ not doing so well!?!
When you say profit per branch you mean profits per territory owner, all that were top earners and performers at PB have either not had their license agreements renewed or have been asked to leave due to poor performers in their teams – now theres a story for you PIE
Maybe you need to contact Frau Renshaw and put some decent meat on those very brittle bones…
It doesn’t take much to find out the truth mate. It seems reporting is only done on topics that will gain more traction than the top guys who took those bricks and built the business to just get those houses knocked down.
Finding out the truth is one thing.
Having proof of it is another.
What an incredible insight based on factual information, the Purple Bricks empire controlling the majority of stock whilst maintaining only 5% of market share. The solid foundations have now been laid with 2020 being the year to accelerate market growth so dominating the sector based on an ethical business model offering a like-for-like service for a fair fixed fee V’s like-for-like high street service based on a percentage of asset………..BOOM!
The future is bright…the future is Purple.
Buy…Buy….Buy… those shares.
Have a great Christmas and don’t forget to keep up the good service between 9-5pm and remember to switch the answering machine on.
……. 2020 being the year to accelerate market growth so dominating the sector …..
You just put the curse on PB (again) for eveytime you make this lunatic statement, they go downhill. You have been proven wrong everytime ‘Prophet n loss’. No one takes you seriously with your rantings, what nonsense you can come with next? Always wrong, wrong, wrong, rather entertaining and no-one takes you seriously.
The prophet only speaks the truth, and to receive a paragraph of inconsistent babblings based on fake news is a delight particularly when the author thinks YOPA is on the high street.
Perhaps in the future you could substantiate your random unsubstantiated statements with factual evidence so we could participate in a sensible informative factual debate as opposed to random babblings cocooned within a tissue of dislike for Purple Bricks and other online innovative business who have chosen to support the homeowner offering a like-for-like service for a fixed fee V’s the high street model based on leaching a percentage of the hard working homeowners asset for the same service.
Now let’s all hold hand and pray to the Purple Brick and ask for forgiveness for your stupidity and hope in 2020 your contribution is based on facts and not fiction.Have a Happy Christmas and if you do have any spare cash then Now would be a good time to invest in Purple Bricks, the future is bright and the future is Purple.
Buy…Buy….Buy…Bye Bye
After much ado, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are just weird.
Just ask Alexa
Ha ha ha. Your snorting again I see.
Which part of “offering a like-for-like service for a fixed fee” does your grey cells not comprehend as lies.
“Perhaps in the future you could substantiate your random unsubstantiated statements with factual evidence”
15th October 2019: Stock website … Purplebricks refuses to disclose the number of its instructions that result in a completed sale. I’ve seen an increase in dissatisfied customers on Trustpilot recently. ‘Bad’ ratings in the last 475 reviews are running at three times the historical rate.
9th October 2019: Announced that by this current financial year – ending next April – Purplebricks would have 100,000 listings, 730 Local Property Experts and potential revenue of £130m, with market share of 7% and revenue of £1,300 per instruction. The forecast also predicted gross profit of £78m and EBITDA profit of £51m.
July this year, TPO made two awards for stress, anxiety and inconvenience of £100 each and also reinstated a settlement of £250 from Purplebricks
12th September 2019: A statement on page 79 of Purplebricks’ latest annual report discloses a “contingent liability”.
It says that during an AML compliance check, “a number of findings were noted in relation to non compliance with certain aspects of this legislation”. In the annual report, Purplebricks also warns of a possible risk of litigation,
9th September 2019: Purplebricks has been downgraded from an ‘overweight’ to a ‘neutral’ rating by JPMorgan Chase & Co
6th August 2019: A former Local Property Expert with Purplebricks has asked Trustpilot to take down all 252 of his reviews. He has said that if everyone who left Purplebricks were to have their reviews removed, about 33,000 would be gone.
8th July 2019: A disenchanted customer of Purplebricks has used social media to complain about the firm and ask for help from a variety of sources, including her MP, the Law Society, Which?, various TV programmes and the presenter Matt Allbright, Citizens Advice, and the Committee for Advertising Practice.
3rd July 2019: Purplebricks announced an operating loss of £52.3m. The group’s operating loss is up 88% from £27.8m last year.
13th June 2019: Purplebricks announced it is to cut two of its services. Its night-time telephone and live chat services are to go, as is its sellers’ concierge – the central office support service for LPEs and their customers.
7th June 2019: Yesterday, Purplebricks’ shares finished some 2% down, at about 107p
4th July 2019: Sdaltaf101
The future is bright, the future is Purple.
Buy buy buy those shares and watch them rocket north.
Dont forget to switch your answering machine on at 5pm and then go and post the mail
19th December 2019: PB share price over the past month had been down hovering around £1 and £105. Climbed to £117 for the first time in 6 months on announcement of general election result but today falling, falling so far to £115.
So much for “Prophet n Loss” claiming same service as high street and good idea to buy, buy shares that will rocket up.
The facts you wanted and only a sample of a very long list but sufficient to demonstrate you haven’t a clue and the Prophet only speaks with forked tongue.
“….. an ethical business model offering a like-for-like service …..”.
In your dreams.
PS: ‘Prophet n Loss’ which of the high street agents listed are major players in YOPA?
Anyone seen KW pathetic agent to listing ratio. Looks like Quirk onto another winner!!!!!
That was my immediate response to this article. Wow! 1 and a bit listings per agent. How much are the agents making??? At best, if they are turning over all of their stock each month because they’re brilliant at selling houses and they are charging say £3k per completion, and never had a fall through EVER. You do the maths………
I’ve got a million houses for sale !!!
And?
We sell houses, not just list houses!
PB has to remember this golden rule if it’s to see 2021 in any viable shape, 24% down on last year tells me they have a root and branch problem with their business model. Estate agents thrive on one thing more than anything else.
Word of Mouth recommendations.
So Doorsteps have turned over £130k
Briiliant
Doesn’t this just show that PB don’t sell much of their listed stock?
This report is flawed. When it says ‘stock’ this should include for sale, under offer and sstc to be anywhere near accurate.
‘ANG ON A MINUTE…!!
Above you state
“When it says ‘stock’ this should include for sale, under offer and sstc to be anywhere near accurate.”
Yet in a post below –
“They don’t have accurate records for completed sales. Some will still show as sstc for months after completing if the seller uses their own solicitors”
I think you need to make your mind up. You’re getting your wires crossed.
I think you need to read again mate.
Stock numbers should include for sale, under offer and sstc. Completed sales is a different matter because the records are not accurate. In fact even if they included the sstc in stock numbers its seems Purplebricks just can’t get it right for reports like this one done.
No – I don’t need to read anything again… mate. You, on the other hand, need to reflect on what you posted.
In one sentence you are saying that figures need to include SSTCs to be “anywhere near accurate” – in the other you say that SSTCs cannot be relied upon as accurate because they don’t take them down until months after completion.
That to one side – I actually agree with you. Stock is stock – whether available or SSTC. The differentiator of course between PB and ‘traditional’ Agents is that their “stock” have all paid up in one way, shape or form – yer average High Street Agent needs to sell them to get any cash in.
But that is as much of a negative as it is a positive for the PurpleOnes. They have no ‘unsold stock’ that they can forecast income from – at least not in the way of normal Agency. They need fresh instructions to keep the cash flowing in – or they wither and die on the vine.
And they are down some 15% year on year – and no signs of improvement…
“Numbers are said not to include properties under offer” – Just as well, PB!
The purple PR machine could put out a statement celebrating their success… “PB takes over £20m of fees; versus £0 taken by Connells & Countrywide!”
Although, that would be a stark reminder that you pay to have your property sitting available. Maybe they could release a Christmas Thank You message to all their customers who haven’t, by chance, gone Under Offer and caused them extra work, whilst diluting their profits. Merry Christmas, Ebenezer.
Stock by location covered would be good
Bricks be 4 houses in every town. I.e. rubbish.
Amazing comment, thank you
‘We are unable to corroborate the figures or confirm the source.’ So, a waste of time then! Gotta go, apparently Elvis has just been spotted at the McDonalds drive thru!