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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Stamp Duty changes to blame for 14% dip in property sales volumes says Your Move
The changes to Stamp Duty ushered in by George Osborne in 2014 have reduced property sales in London and the South by up to 30%, analysis of Land Registry data has revealed. The number of homes sold each year has plummeted by nearly a third in London and by 20% in the South over the past two years, according to the monthly Your Move/Acadata house price index, although the sales volume reduction has been less acute nationally, at 14%. These figures are also very different across the UK. For example, in the northern regions the volume reduction is just 11% while in Wales the number of homes sold increased by 2%. “The slowdown in London can now also be seen in the South East. Time will tell if the rest of England and Wales remains resilient,” says Oliver Blake (pictured, left), Managing Director of Your Move. His company’s index reveals one silver lining and potentially brighter times ahead for agents. The Christmas/NY shutdown for 2017/18 did not depress sales volumes as much as it usually does during the festive season. “We estimate that the number of housing transactions [during] January 2018 in England and Wales at 64,000, down by 15%…
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Tenant fees ban and extra red tape will cause ‘bonfire of the small letting agents’
Before you read on, if you haven’t signed the petition against the ban, SIGN HERE! It needs just a few more signatures for it to become a question that the House of Commons must examine. The lettings sector is to see many smaller agencies exit the market as increased regulation and next year’s tenant fees ban began to bite, it has been claimed. Franchised lettings giant Belvoir has revealed in its latest trading update that the group expects to help its franchisees ‘mop up’ as increasing numbers of smaller local rivals shut down over the next year or more. Belvoir also says it is doing well, despite its failed attempt to merge with rival The Property Franchise Group – owner of Martin & Co – in October last year. Fees from franchisees increased by 22% and overall group revenue increased by 13% to £9.9 million, both figures boosted by its first full-year contributions from Northwood, which it bought in June 2016, and the recruitment of six new franchise owners. Belvoir also says it is helping its franchisees expand as much through rental portfolio buy-ups as franchised branch openings. The latest results show that its network hoovered up 23 such portfolios,…
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All good cheer at Andrews & Robertson
Andrews & Robertson ended its 2017 calendar of auctions on a high with a strong 82 per cent sale.
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Purplebricks is ignoring advertising watchdog’s ruling over fee transparency, claims CIELA
Purplebricks is to be investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over a ruling the watchdog published last year which upheld a complaint by the Charter for Independent Estates and Lettings Agents (CIELA) about its TV advertising. CIELA claims that Purplebricks is still not being clear about its upfront fee structure, despite the ASA saying it should do when, in October, the ASA found that Purplebricks’ ‘commisery’ TV ads had breached its Code of Broadcast Advertising. In the comments, the ASA said Purplebricks must “ensure that when making a comparison to other fee models in their ads, they made it clear that their flat fee was always payable.” Last week CIELA made a further complaint to the ASA, pointing out that several of Purplebricks’ online adverts made the same claims, and had not been amended to reflect the ASA’s earlier decision. CIELA has been told by the ASA that its complaint will not be taken forward. In an email to CIELA, it has said that “having considered your complaint, we have determined that it is not necessary to reinvestigate the issue, in light of the previous ruling. “Instead, we will refer this matter directly to our Compliance team to take…
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Homeless pair use Foxtons to put a roof over their heads
London agent Foxtons do their bit for charity including supporting the capital’s Air Ambulance service but an initiative taken by a pair of homeless people over the past two weeks probably won’t make it onto their corporate social responsibility website. Max Bloom and Stephen Watt, both of whom had recently been made homeless, built a floating single-room house out of borrowed beer kegs, old sheds and used discarded Foxtons For Sale signs to make its striking roof. The juxtaposition of the Foxtons signs and the floating home created a stir on Twitter, and one neighbouring boat owner told The Evening Standard it was “worthy of the Tate modern”. But the Canal and River Trust aren’t art fans. The pair were forcibly evicted from their floating home last Thursday early in the morning and given two minutes to clear their possessions before a floating crane destroyed the structure. Solar panels Max and Stephen had spent a month planning the house, which included heating and cooking facilities, and had planned to add solar panels. The pair had also put in an application to the trust to have it registered. The pair have now been made homeless again. The trust say the hut…
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Purplebricks shares continue freefall despite robust radio defence of sales by new UK CEO
The Purplebricks share price has continued to tumble today dropping this morning by 10% to £3.74p a share, down from its all-time high of £5.13p. This follows a price crash late last week during which its share price dropped by nearly 15%, prompted in part – it is claimed by Purplebricks – by a market report from investment analyst Jefferies that claimed it is selling fewer properties than the 78% sales rate it currently promotes. The company’s new CEO Lee Wainwright (pictured, below) went public over the weekend and appeared on a BBC5Live radio programme, during which he called into question the basis of Jefferies report, saying: “Purplebricks wouldn’t be growing at the rate it is if we were only selling half the properties we list”. “The reason we’re capturing the imagination of consumers is that the old way [isn’t] working,” he added. “I’ve been in the estate agency for 26 years, I’ve worked on the high street, I know that the performance of Purplebricks is incredible compared to the high street estate agencies. “Customers want a better way, they want more transparency on fees and the convenience of 24-hour technology and they want a cost-effective way of doing estate…
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SDL Auctions announces 40 date auction calendar
SDL Auctions has announced a record breaking number of 40 dates for its 2018 auction calendar.
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AllAgents asks reviewers to prove their posts are not ‘fake’
Glasgow-based reviews website allAgents has taken the “unprecedented step” of asking people posting on its site to prove they are genuine customers of an agent before their comments can go live. The site, which has been involved in a prolonged battle with Purplebricks over claims by the agent that some negative posts on allAgents are ‘fake’, says it has made the move “due to previous threats of legal action” by Purplebricks. “They are not fake, they are genuine customer concerns,” a statement released by allAgents over the weekend says. AllAgents claims it is now the only review site in the UK to ask customers for proof of this kind prior to posts going live. The announcement is the culmination of nearly six months of wrangling between the two firms after Purplebricks asked the site to take down the ‘fake’ negative reviews. The website declined to do so. In December talks between it and Purplebricks broke down after allAgents’ Director of Business Development said the hybrid agent’s “business ethics are not in line with our own”. one-star reviews Of the 11 reviews posted on the reviews website since the New Year, all bar one award Purplebricks one star out of five…
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How to survive today’s increasingly competitive and online property marketplace
Our guest columnist and agent Paul Cooney reveals how his company has thrived despite both the online threat and swanky corporate competitors with big budgets.
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Purplebricks hits back at analyst’s report that it only sells half of listed properties.
Purplebricks has rebuffed a report issued yesterday by City investment analyst Jefferies which claimed that the company only sold approximately half of all the properties it lists for sale, and advised investors to sell their shares in the company. The Jefferies report, while praising the rapid rise of Purplebricks, criticised the company for not revealing how many houses it really sells and that, sellers who were not successful using their service had already paid up-front for the service. Analysts at Jefferies also wondered what would happen if the “model stumbled” when consumers realised the service they pay for isn’t a guaranteed sale. The revelation prompted a steep decline in the company’s shares yesterday, which dropped in price by 7.5% on the AIM stock exchange during brisk trading. Single month Purplebricks says the data used by Jefferies to make the claims was based on just a single month’s trading and “does not include properties that have completed but have yet to be uploaded to the Land Registry,” the company says in a statement this morning. It also says its full-year trading remains in line with expectations. The hybrid agent also says the data used did not include properties that had exchanged,…
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