Hybrid agency Yopa says it now one of the top five property sales agents in the UK by market share, its new managing director has revealed, although the company is still a long way off from being profitable.

The agency has promoted its finance chief Freddie Cornes to the role of MD just over two years after he joined from DMGT, which is a major financial backer of Yopa long with Savills.

The company has been led since August 2019 by former Countrywide chief executive Grenville Turner after its previous CEO Ben Poynter exited in October last year.

“We’ve made huge strides over the past year in particular thanks to the hard work of Yopa’s business owners and staff,” says Cornes.

“We’ve grown our market share to reach the top five estate agency brands in the UK, helped our agents to grow their businesses and earnings, and seen significant progress in financial performance. “As a result, we have been cash generating since April 2020.”

Gross profit

The company’s most recent accounts for 2018 show it generated revenue of £6.9 million that year, gross profit (revenue minus cost of sales) of £2.7 million but overheads of £33 million and an operating loss of £30 million.

Yopa hasn’t published its accounts for 2019/20 but says its gross profits have increased by over 90% and that its agents are converting valuations into instructions and referring core services more than ever before, boosting agent earnings by 130% year-on-year.

Cornes’ connection to DMGT and his financial skills are therefore essential for a company like Yopa. He trained as a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte before working as a Financial Analyst at Sky.

At DMGT he was Head of Commercial Finance, responsible for the financial performance of all advertising sales and consumer departments within its media arm.