Purplebricks had the most Sold Subject to Contract (SSTC) properties on Rightmove in 2020 for third consecutive year, new figures show.
The company had 47,811 unique properties marked as SSTC in 2020 – a 5.1% market share of SSTC properties on the portal.
However, the number of properties marked as SSTC by Purplebricks last year is down from 49,166 in 2019, while its overall market share has dropped from 5.7% in 2019.
William H Brown ranked second with 12,174 and a SSTC market share of 1.3% on Rightmove, followed by Hunters (11,727), Connells (9,703), Yopa (8,590), haart (6,761), Strike (6,021), Your Move (5,764), Savills (5,526), and Winkworth (5,059).
Top 20 agents (brand):
| Agent | Sales Agreed | Market Share | |
| Purplebricks | 47811 | 5.0949% | |
| William H. Brown | 12174 | 1.2973% | |
| Hunters | 11727 | 1.2497% | |
| Connells | 9703 | 1.0340% | |
| Yopa | 8590 | 0.9154% | |
| haart | 6761 | 0.7205% | |
| Strike | 6021 | 0.6416% | |
| Your Move | 5764 | 0.6142% | |
| Savills | 5526 | 0.5889% | |
| Winkworth | 5059 | 0.5391% | |
| Bairstow Eves | 4717 | 0.5027% | |
| Wards | 4456 | 0.4748% | |
| Reeds Rains | 4364 | 0.4650% | |
| Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward – Sales | 4091 | 0.4359% | |
| EweMove | 3961 | 0.4221% | |
| Hamptons Sales | 3844 | 0.4096% | |
| Newton Fallowell | 3593 | 0.3829% | |
| Fox & Sons | 3487 | 0.3716% | |
| Bridgfords | 3475 | 0.3703% |
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 almost 7,000 brands and over 13,500 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 interesting to see the data.
Top is Purplebricks covering central England with 9,171 properties marked as SSTC last year; Purplebricks London, Yorkshire, Scotland, the North-West, Anglia and Meridian follow after this.
Strike (Yorkshire), Express Estate Agency (national), Doorsteps.co.uk (national), Purplebricks (Wales), and Yopa (North West) follow.
The researcher – who we are not identifying – has also produced from Rightmove Intel a list of the top 60 branches excluding ‘nationwide’ agents.
Top 20 (local agents):
| Position | Type | Agent | Sales Agreed |
| 1 | Local Agent | Warners Solicitors – Edinburgh | 1080 |
| 2 | Local Agent | Pinkmove – Newport | 1014 |
| 3 | Local Agent | HoldenCopley – Nottingham | 911 |
| 4 | Local Agent | MOV8 Real Estate (Principal GPM Branch) – Scotland Head Office | 736 |
| 5 | Local Agent | PCM Estate Agents – Hastings | 725 |
| 6 | Local Agent | Smart Homes Ltd – Shirley – Sales | 702 |
| 7 | Local Agent | BuckleyBrown – Mansfield | 694 |
| 8 | Local Agent | Dourish & Day – Stafford | 650 |
| 9 | Local Agent | Verity Frearson – Harrogate | 650 |
| 10 | Local Agent | The Square Room – Fylde Coast | 580 |
| 11 | Local Agent | McEwan Fraser Legal – Scotland | 567 |
| 12 | Local Agent | First Choice Move – Lillyhall | 557 |
| 13 | Local Agent | Regan & Hallworth – Wigan | 557 |
| 14 | Local Agent | Ashtons Estate Agents – York City | 552 |
| 15 | Local Agent | Igloo – Hamilton | 541 |
| 16 | Local Agent | Move Residential – Mossley Hill – Sales | 540 |
| 17 | Local Agent | The Stow Brothers – Walthamstow | 534 |
| 18 | Local Agent | Sutton Kersh Auction – Liverpool – Auction | 533 |
| 19 | Local Agent | 2Roost – Sheffield | 507 |
| 20 | Local Agent | D B Roberts & Partners – Telford | 503 |
The researcher collected the data between 1 January and 31 December 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.
The researcher’s data also shows 13,569 branches on Rightmove last year, down from 14,217 in 2019, and 14,262 in 2018. Average sales per branch last year were 69, compared with 60 the year before.
Comments (14)
The more SSTC the better the figures look. However when you consider that PB do absolutely NOTHING to progress their sales they effectively ‘back up’ and make them look impressive. Therefore the worse you are at ‘sales progression’ the better your figures are! What would be an interesting statistic is how long do PB properties take to complete from the ‘sale agreed’ stage compared to REAL estate agents?
So online Estate Agents had no where near the 50% market share in 2020 predicted by Russell Quirk back in 2015 ?
Another respected property publication ran a story on PB last week that an independent research by TwentyCI confirmed they have only 3% of overall market share of the property industry for 2020. Have they maxed out in the property market as it appears to be 3% to 4% same level for a few years now? More interesting to note in the report was PB list 77% of properties getting to SSTC and 21% failed to progress to completion. Does this mean that around 40% listed are not sold!
Also confirmed 17,035 vendors withdrew properties with no sale, at a cost of £17m+ revenue into PB coffers.
SSTC is meaningless, completions are the true figure of an agents ability. Unless you charge for failure.
“The researcher’s data also shows 13,569 branches on Rightmove last year, down from 14,217 in 2019, and 14,262 in 2018.”
RM own published accounts show 16,347 EA branches at y/end 2019 – down from 17328 in 2018 (Accounts for 2020 s/be available by end February).
It looks like RM will be taking a another big hit on the number of EA advertising in 2020 !
I wonder if it takes into account all of the sub brands of some of the larger agencies. How does the research differentiate this .I have to say the STRIKE results look kinda impressive ?. I am in the South so know little about this entity.
Never mind the figures, I’m really curious about this ‘researcher’. Why the secrecy, why do they do it every year and what’s in it for them?
As national conveyancers we just don’t see Purplebricks any more.
For comparison purposes if they only use SSTC properties then their figures won’t be accurate. For example our firm, as with many others uses ‘under offer’ only so won’t even feature. Does anyone know if UO is included?
And how many completed sales have ‘accidentally’ been left on RM and would PB even know…?
5% isn’t 10% Vic. Although you did save the company thousands by sacking furloughed staff during a pandemic after telling them they were securing the company’s future and jobs were safe so at least you accomplished something in 2020. Oh, and that bonus you gave yourself mid pandemic too.
Ahh the beauty of a kind market! let’s be honest, it hasn’t been tough to sell a house recently, The more impressive stats are from the likes of KFH & Wards who are covering very small areas of the country in comparison to the national brands.
Not a bad result for PB considering the agents make less per hour than if they worked at McDonald’s or Burger King.
You’re not wrong there. I’ve just about had enough now. Slog my guts out for 25-30k a year, no holidays, no sick pay, no support, compliance have us running around in circles making it incredibly difficult to even get a house on the market, at the customer’s beck and call 12 hours a day 7 days a week, have to go out to even the poorest valuations. Yes you can take a day off when you want etc, but it’s just not worth it anymore. Times have changed there. As soon as things start getting back to normal, I’m off.
Statistics,damn statistics
Interesting to note acc,to ZPL that over 8.7% of Bricks sales inventory has been on the market 12 months or longer uncompleted
That alone amounts to well over £1m in fees paid in advance for a service yet delivered
In comparison Yopa has 5,3% of their inventory in uncompleted sales over 12 months