Closures hit nearly 3,000 estate agency sales branches and almost 2,000 lettings offices last year, shock new figures reveal.

Many of the closures were offset by new branch openings, but by the end of 2023, there were still 1,154 less sales and 659 fewer lettings branches, property data firm TwentyCi says.

In more detail, 2,893 sales branches and 1,906 lettings branches ceased to operate.

Uncertainty

Katy Billany, Executive Director of TwentyEA, part of the TwentyCi Group, says: “Last year was the first time since the pandemic that the industry experienced such a significant increase in branch closures.

The closures are largely related to the general uncertainty surrounding the property market.”

“On the whole, the closures are largely related to the general uncertainty surrounding the property market and the wider economy throughout 2023,” she says.

“Fewer properties have been sold and fewer tenancies agreed due to the shortage of lettings stock.”

Franchises

Six out of 10 of the brands with the most net sales office closures were franchises, she says.

“It is also perhaps not a coincidence that the closures overlap with the rise of self-employed agents, who collectively saw their market share increase by 16% throughout 2023.”

Hybrid fall

Meanwhile, the market share of all online/hybrid agents at the end of 2023 for exchanges was 5.5%, declining from 6.9% in Q4 2022. This figure continues to trend lower since a high of 8.2% in 2019.

The largest agents in this category are Yopa, Purplebricks and eXp, representing over 70% of all activity, TwentyCi says.

Billany added: “With a slowing property market and squeezed wallets, you might assume that sellers would opt for the most cost-effective estate agent fee, but this wasn’t the case.

Turbulent

“Instead, we saw cautious buyers embrace the expertise of traditional estate agents during such a turbulent economy, and thus market share for online/hybrid agents fell.”

Hybrid estate agency market share loss ‘to continue’