The newly-installed CEO of the Purplebricks’ USA operation is Eric Eckardt (pictured), a 42-year-old serial property tech start-up entrepreneur and keen skier with a background in investment banking.

Educated in New York, he then joined the banking industry where he spent nine years working for three different banks including JP Morgan, Bank of Tokyo and ABN AMRO, before setting up his own company Eckhardt Holdings LLC.

He used that as a vehicle to launch several start-ups including a private mortgage company and an online brokerage firm called ZonicRealty which he launched in 2012 with his brother.

It prompted a lot of media coverage in the US, but in June 2016 morphed into Dwellowner.com. Like its predecessor, the company is a flat-fee brokerage rather than charging agents a percentage-based commission.

At the same time Eric Eckardt was steering another business, Luxembourg-based Hubzu.com where he was a vice-president working direct with US brokers. Hubzu specialises in selling bank-owned properties but hired Eckardt to help move the company into the US real estate market.

He left in 2015 and returned to the US to focus on his DwellExchange business, which he describes as a full-service hybrid real estate brokerage – something that no doubt attracted Purplebricks to him.

Eckhart is also listed on US property portal Trulia.com as what’s called a ‘dual agent’ in the US – he represents both buyers and vendors – via his company DwellOwner. The website lists Eckhart as selling two properties so far both in NY. One was sold for $260,000 in November last year, and the other for $330,000 five weeks ago.

Eckhart’s background would suggest that Purplebricks is aiming to launch at least one of its two start-up areas in the US within New York, although Purplebricks says the top five property markets by residential sales in the US are California, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.