Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
-
Purplebricks share price continues downward spiral despite Axel Springer deal
Yesterday’s announcement by Purplebricks that German publisher Axel Springer is to invest £125 million in the business has failed to impress the City, dealing in its shares over the past 24 hours suggest. Purplebricks share price slid by 10% yesterday following the announcement and this has continued today, with its share price dipping to £2.73p at one point this morning. This is an ongoing trend, though. The company has seen its share price lose a third of its value over the past four weeks and 45% of its value since it peaked in July last year at £5.13. One reason for the downturn can be laid at the door of the current worries over a looming trade war between the US and the UK, as well as a febrile atmosphere among investors around the world as the EU and Russia sabre rattle. Directors cash in But the fact that many of Purplebricks’ senior team including founding brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce have cashed in some of their shares in the Axel Springer deal have also been a source of concern for investors – who don’t like to see directors or key senior people cashing in so early in a company’s…
Read More » -
Spicerhart signs up 100 branches with deposits alternative service Flatfair
Agency group Spicerhaart has signed up with smartphone-based deposits alternative Flatfair and will now offer the service via the company’s 100 lettings branches to its 15,000 landlords. Instead of taking a deposit, tenants pay a ‘membership fee’ equivalent to one week’s rent while landlords are covered for up to 12 weeks’ worth of rent. Tenants are still liable for any damages to the property and unpaid rent, sums that Flatfair recovers itself on behalf of the landlord. Benefits claimed by Flatfair,which is not an insurance-based product unlike many of its competitors, include faster damage payouts, access to a pool of more reliable tenants via its tenant scoring system, faster lettings, lower agent costs and fewer lengthy voids. “Many landlords are concerned that their property is not sufficiently protected by a tenancy deposit, particularly true in the light of the upcoming deposit-cap, and that lengthy void periods and penalties eat away at their rental yield,” says Spicerhaart’s Lettings Development Director Paul Sloan (left). “We were highly impressed with Flatfair’s innovative technology and how easy the platform was to use. We’re confident it’ll mean not only lower up-front costs for tenants but also help make our landlords’ properties more appealing. Flatfair, which…
Read More » -
OnTheMarket founding agent Chestertons signs with ZPG
Chestertons, one of the founding agents of property portal OnTheMarket (OTM) and one of London’s largest branch networks, has returned to Zoopla after a three-year hiatus. Its 32 branches have started listing on ZPG’s two websites with immediate effect as well as continuing to appear on Rightmove and OTM. A spokesperson from OnTheMarket said: “”Chestertons remains a valued and supportive estate agent customer of, and shareholder in, OnTheMarket and indeed has recently chosen to sign a new 5-year listing agreement with us.” Chestertons is one of a growing number of agents now listing on all three platforms after OTM lifted its ‘one other portal rule’ following its listing on the AIM stock market. “We’re excited to be returning to ZPG and having all of Chestertons properties listed on all four of the UK’s main property websites, which will benefit both our customers and our business,” says Allan Collins, CEO of Chestertons. The company, which founded OTM alongside several other high-profile agents including Knight Frank and Savills, is not the only agent to have signed up with or returned to ZPG recently. The portal says a flurry of branches have signed a listings agreement with it in recent weeks including eight…
Read More » -
Purplebricks blames slow start to Spring market on weather, training and economy
Purplebricks has hit its first purple patch after it was revealed today that group revenues for the financial year are likely to be 5% lower than its target of £98 million. In a statement released this morning, the company says a difficult few weeks during late February and early March are to blame for the drop in performance, although Purplebricks says overall group cashflow is on track to be double that of last year’s, helped by good performances from its US and Australian operations. It blames the slowdown on “macro issues” within the economy – presumably the ongoing Brexit jitters – plus the ‘Beast from the East’ storm and the fact that 10% of its LPEs were withdrawn from the market for a training course during late February and early March. These factors drove down sales instructions by 17% during the first three weeks of this month year-on-year, Purplebricks reveals. New instructions “While Purplebricks has experienced strong growth in its UK division to date and it continues to build market share in both the total estate agency market and hybrid estate agency sector in the UK, it has experienced lower than expected levels of new instructions for the Company during…
Read More » -
Purplebricks signals imminent move into Europe with extra £125m from German publisher
German publisher and property portal owner Axel Springer has invested £125 million in Purplebricks for 11.5% of its share capital, it has been announced, subject to a board meeting likely to rubber-stamp the deal next month. The surprise move by the €7 billion publisher of Europe’s largest tabloid newspaper Bild is to help fund a faster roll-out of the hybrid agency in the US, to prepare for entry into new markets and to improve its IT systems. Berlin-based Axel Springer’s investment, which echoes the Daily Mail’s involvement with Zoopla, is being led by its classified advertising chief Andreas Wiele, who joins the Purplebricks’ board as a non-exec director. But the investment also adds to Axel Springer’s existing property portal portfolio – it operates several leading European versions of Rightmove including SeLoger, Immowelt and Immoweb. European expansion? And like many UK publishers who have invested in digital media in the past, the move is designed to offset the huge migration by many agents from traditional publishing to online, and suggests an imminent move by the hybrid agent into European markets such as Germany and France. “Under the leadership of its founder Michael Bruce, Purplebricks has created a highly innovative digital real…
Read More » -
Allied Surveyors Scotland expands into St Andrews
Allied Surveyors Scotland Plc has opened a new office in St Andrews and appointed Nigel Forrest as a Director to head the valuation department.
Read More » -
IAM Sold reports £322.6m sales
Outsourced auction management provider, IAM Sold, is the largest independent residential auctioneer in the UK based on lots sold according to the EIG league table.
Read More » -
Purplebricks is being caught up by rival YOPA says leading investment bank
Purplebricks’ growth is stalling and it’s being caught up by rival YOPA, say analysts at Swiss banking giant UBS It has released a research note that both highlights Purplebricks’ slowing growth and cuts the likely final market share in the UK from 15% to 12%. UBS has subsequently dropped its target price for Purplebricks from £3.05p to £2.85p. Shares in Purplebricks are currently trading at approximately £3.36p each. The bank has also reiterated its advice that investors should sell their shares in the company. As well as flagging up slowing growth for the hybrid agency, the bank says its Subject to Contact market share has been flatlining since September last year at approximately 5%. Raise questions “Given the importance of the Spring Market, we believe that this level of progress will be below management’s expectations, and will raise questions around the potential market share Purplebricks is able to achieve,” it says. UBS also says that one of its key competitors, Savills-backed YOPA, is beginning to catch up Purplebricks and now has 0.5% of the market, and that many hybrid and online agents are now offering ‘no sale, no fee’ options to customers, something Purplebricks does not. “Whilst [YOPA’s market share]…
Read More » -
Humphreys of Chester increases market share
Estate agency Humphreys of Chester reports that it has taken the number one spot in its region for the fourth year running in respect of its sales business, as well as finishing 2017 as the top agent in Chester for lettings.
Read More » -
IPS Estates announces partnership with SDL Auctions
IPS Estates has partnered with the Midlands auction specialist, SDL Auctions.
Read More »