Purplebricks is now “the largest estate agent in the UK by listings”
Claim is made by Robin Savage, Research Director of Purplebricks' City broker Zeus Capital in London during online interview.
The City advisor and sole broker to Purplebricks, Zeus Capital, has claimed that the hybrid agent is now the largest estate agent in the UK by the number of listings on Rightmove.
This is well ahead of recent claims by London investment firm Peel Hunt, which earlier this year said it would take another year to two years for Purplebricks to become the largest agent in the UK by market share.
The new claim was made by Zeus Capital’s Research Director Robin Savage during a recorded interview with an investment website.
Purplebricks says it has 16,498 properties for sale on Rightmove but won’t say how many properties it has sold since launch. Its largest competitor, Countrywide, said in its most recent trading update that it sold over 50,000 houses last year, but doesn’t reveal how many it has for sale.
Not terribly happy
During the interview, Robin Savage also claims that criticism of Purplebricks by agents is because the hybrid agent’s growth has come “at the cost of its competitors who are not terribly happy”.
He also made several punchy predictions for Purplebricks including that Purplebricks is seven months ahead of Zeus Capital’s growth predictions for Local Property Expert recruitment.
Robin went on to say that he believes Purplebricks will be in a good position to take even more market share during the crucial Spring market next year.
He also says that he believes Purplebricks will make a profit of £30m during the full financial year, results for which are due to be revealed in mid-December, and that profits will increase to £45 million the next year.
And, referring to recent criticism of Purplebricks’ handling of reviews about its service on TrustPilot, Robin said that “there made be the odd detractor who has difficulty selling their home for particular reasons – but there are considerably more happy customers than there are unhappy ones”.
Robin also commented on Purplebricks’ Australian operation, which he believes will profitable next year only 15 months after it launched.