Online estate agencies will remain viable as long as they demonstrate and evidence their value, Verona Frankish, chief executive of Yopa, told delegates at the Propertymark One conference in Wembley Arena yesterday (main picture).

TV pundit and property guru Russell Quirk was hosting the Sales Insight Panel and  asked the online agency boss whether she thought there was life in the business model following the demise of Purplebricks and its subsequent acquisition by Strike.

CAREFUL

Frankish replied: “I think we have to be careful how we categorise estate agents into either online or traditional or high street or hybrid.

“I think that there is a real selection of quality estate agents across the entire sector.

“Just because one business isn’t deemed as successful it’s a bit dangerous to tar a number of agents with that particular brush.”

And she added: “In the first instance I think that the gap between what has previously been considered as online and traditional is a lot smaller.

“It’s a complete misnomer and it’s important for the sector that we offer choice of agents in terms of how they operate – whether they want to work in an office or not, whether they want to charge fees.

“I think it’s important that we offer agents choice but I also think it’s important that we offer customers choice. Therefore, a selection of those different models and operating models is healthy for the industry.”

DISCOUNTERS

Pressed on whether there was still room for discounters in the estate agency sector and whether there was a future for Purplebricks ‘mashup’, Frankish told delegates: “I’m not an advocate for free but I am an advocate for value. As long as any agent can demonstrate and evidence their value I think that is really important.

“It depends though what they do with it [Purplebricks] – if they go down the route of free I personally don’t think they can survive.

“We all know the cost of doing business. People talk about the cost-of-living crisis but nobody talks about the cost of doing business and that is increasing all the time.

“If you offer a service for free that makes it more challenging for the business and the agent and for everyone to have threat slice of the pie.”