Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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Competition watchdog reveals more details of Burnham agent cartel
The government’s competition watchdog has made the unusual move of publishing more details of its recent investigation into price-fixing in the seaside town of Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset. In March this year the Competition and Markets Authority fined a group of agents in the town a total of nearly £380,000 after its investigation uncovered that they had held a meeting at which they agreed to fix their minimum commission rates at 1.5%. But the CMA believes that, because this is the second time it has caught agents undertaking such anti-competitive behaviour in recent years, it’s concerned that agents still don’t realise how serious such conduct is – or its consequences. The earlier case involved an association of estate agent in Hampshire who in May 2015 were revealed to have colluded with a local newspaper over the publishing of fees and discounts in adverts. Burnham cartel To highlight this, the CMA has published details of how the Burnham cartel was set up, discussed and what was said at the clandestine meeting. The agents involved were Gary Berryman Estates Ltd, Abbot and Frost Limited, Greenslade Taylor Hunt and West Coast Property Services (UK). The CMA says the anti-competitive activity kicked off in 2014…
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Purplebricks kicks off in US with 3D viewings
Purplebricks has officially launched in the US seven months after it raised £50m from the City to fund its expansion over the pond. As announced in June, Purplebricks’ US launch has kicked off in California beginning in Los Angeles before being rolled out across the state and later other key states and cities across the US. Its American team, which is led by CEO Eric Eckardt, has also revealed its fee structure, which has been adapted to fit the US way of selling properties. Agents charge vendors a 5-6% fee to sell their home and then give up to 3% of their fee to the buying agent who successfully introduces a purchaser. Purplebricks is to instead charge vendors in the US a flat fee of $3,200 to list their homes, although they will have to pay the buying agent’s fee when the property is sold. As in the UK, vendors will be able to delay the up-front listing payment by effectively taking out a loan to fund it. But buyers who purchase their properties through Purplebricks without using a buying agent will receive a cash payment of $1,000 when they buy the property, effectively inducing purchasers to cut out buying…
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Is this new style of agency the answer to the industry’s problems?
A former Chestertons sales director, Nick Carter has launched Harding Green, a US-style estate agency in central London which, he claims, will be unique way of selling and letting property in the UK. The business will run a central office but instead of staff, the company’s Associates will be self-employed and individually responsible for between 15 and 20 properties for sale or to let. The Associates will be able to either work alone or in pairs and manage between 30 and 40 properties, and choose between several commission structures. This includes receiving a salary and 20% of the commission or working without a salary and taking up to 75% of any commission. Harding Green says it is looking for agents who have a minimum of five years’ experience in the London market in sales or lettings. Kensington office In return, Associates will receive leads from – and be supported by – the firm’s Kensington office including the usual admin, IT and marketing services. This will include advertising and public relations campaigns. The company says each Associate or pair of Associates will remain the sole point of contact for each client from start to finish and therefore be able to dedicate…
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Fast-growing luxury buying agent hires former Marsh & Parsons sales star
Fast-growing luxury property buying agent Black Brick has poached one of London’s fast-rising agent stars, Alex Oliver (pictured, right). Harrow-educated Alex has joined Black Brick after four years working in the capital including initially two years and four months at Foxtons in Brook Green as a sales negotiator, and then a year and eight months at Marsh Parsons in Notting Hill. At M&P he was a senior sales negotiator and also one of the company’s top performing sales people. During his career to date Alex says he has sold property worth £50 million in “some of the toughest property markets”. “We are delighted to welcome Alex to the team,” says Camilla Dell, Managing Partner at Black Brick who, like Alex, is a former Foxtons employee (pictured, left). “As a boutique company, we work on a one to one, bespoke basis with our clients and Alex’s knowledge, expertise and personal approach is the perfect fit for our company ethos.” The company says its success is down to current market conditions and increased demand from buyers seeking impartial advice from the buying agency. The growing team now consists of nine staff, with plans for further expansion in the coming months. Times interview…
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Leaders’ growth continues
Leaders has purchased Bulmer Estates, a family-run business owned by Andrew and Rebecca Bulmer in West Bridgford.
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Good shepherds? Martin & Co reveals the figures behind EweMove
Details of both how EweMove is performing within the Property Franchise Group (PSG) and the large sums of money spent by the group on the acquisition have been revealed within its interim results for the first half of the year. This includes details that the two founders David Laycock and Glenn Ackroyd (pictured right) are to be paid £1m after their departure from the online agent in March, on top of their original £5m payment “in full and final settlement”. The £1m is small change compared to what they would have received should the pair have stuck with it – PSG was due to pay them £7m this year if the online business had hit its targets. EweMove was established in 2014 but was bought by Martin & Co, which is part of PSG, in September last year in a £15m deal. Its technology is now being rolled out across the group including within Whitegates, CJ Hole, Ellis & Co and Parkers Estate Agents. PSG says revenues from EweMove from both the licence fees paid by franchisees and the completion fees paid on each transaction were £550,000 during the first six months of the year, up 35% on the same…
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Countrywide’s next Open House set to be largest yet
Countrywide has kicked off its latest national open house event which, despite recent branch closures and operational streamlining, is set to be the biggest yet. This will be the 15th time the company has run the event since launching it in 2010, the most recent one being in March earlier this year, and before that last September. “We can’t tell for sure how many vendors and tenants will sign up to include their properties within us until the last moment, but it’s shaping up to be big this year,” a spokesperson told The Negotiator. “The good thing about this event is that it takes places across a vast range of properties – owners of million pound mansions throw their doors open for our Open House as well as homes from the rest of the market.” During the most recent Autumn event 29,000 viewings took place at 6,000 properties available to buy or let over the weekend of 25th-26th September. This means on average nearly five people attended each open house. During the inaugural Open House, during December 2009, Countrywide’s brands booked 27,000 viewings across 11,000 properties. This Autumn’s Big Open House is taking place on the weekend of 30th September-1st…
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Start & Co celebrates 40 years
Newquay estate agency Start & Co is celebrating its 40th year by purchasing the freehold of its own premises.
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London buyers flock to Sherborne
Symonds & Sampson’s recent property auction, offering properties in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, attracted regional buyers, as well as a telephone bidder from Spain, but it was London buyers who pushed prices up.
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Savills and easyProperty battle it out this Sunday…on TV
Two opposing giants of the property industry are due to do battle this weekend, but not in the place you might imagine. The pinstripe suits at Savills are to take on the online orange-ness of easyProperty at 8pm on Sunday during ITV historical drama Victoria (pictured, right) during which the two agents will be screening their new adverts. Savills is expected to be first with its new campaign called A Savills Love Story which, the agent says, will build “on the successful concept of talking houses which featured in the Savills campaign last year, this year’s theme goes a step further in bringing homes, and our deep attachment to them, to life”. The company admits both versions of its new TV advert – one shot on a beach (being aired on Sunday) and the other in a park – are fairly surreal, each showing a couple ‘meeting’ their current and future homes and discussing their forthcoming move. “Savills is a business which prides itself on its hunger, drive, and agility in a changing market. The 2017 campaign was a success and has given us the confidence to press forward,” says Alison Dean, head of consumer marketing at Savills. “We want to…
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