America
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Housing Market
Property buyers from US and Canada are fastest growing group
North Americans account for a record one in five of every overseas buyer, according to new Hamptons data.
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Purplebricks brand is ‘better recognised than Rightmove’
Company makes claim within latest Annual Report as it reveals 56% increase in instructions but substantial losses in US and Oz.
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Latest property news
Purplebricks USA gambles on expansion into Las Vegas and Phoenix
Hybrid agency Purplebricks USA has set up shop in two more cities within America including Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas.
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Latest property news
Purplebricks USA speaks at workshop designed to help legislators prevent discrimination against online agents
Purplebricks USA says its appearance yesterday at a Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice workshop in Washington DC was in part to help the country’s legislators prevent traditional agents discriminating against online competitors. In the past the Department of Justice (DoJ) has been forced to intervene in the US industry and prevent ‘anti-competitive’ practices involving online/digital agents. This is in stark contrast to the UK, where the main portals have from the outset enabled online-only agents to list on their platforms. This has been despite agents being unhappy that some online operators have walked a thin line between being an agent and offering vendors and landlords direct access to the portals. In 2008 the DoJ sued the National Association of Realtors – the NAEA’s counterpart in the US – for blocking internet brokers, as online agents are called there, from the country’s property portals. This in theory freed up internet brokers to offer a pared-down, low-fee service via the same portals as traditional agents, and ultimately paved the way for Purplebricks to launch in America, but anti-competitive activities persist, according to commission-free property firm Trelora. During the workshop its CEO Joshua Hunt (pictured) said his company had endured “bricks…
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Latest property news
Purplebricks to be quizzed by US competition watchdog over its flat-fee business model
Purplebricks' CEO in the US Eric Eckhardt is to be quizzed by attorneys from the country's Federal Trade Commission about its business model and practices.
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Michael Bruce raises £50 million from City for Purplebricks USA
Hybrid agent Purplebricks has raised funds through a share issue to help the company break into the US market and launch Purplebricks USA. The funding move raised £50 million pounds via AIM by offering shares at £2.20 each, just under its current share price of £2.26p, which rose by 2.1% during late trading yesterday. The placing was over subscribed and raised several million more than Purplebricks had sought. The company says the cash will be used to set up operations in several key US states during the second half of 2017, and estimates the potential commission cake in the US is approximately $70 billion or £56 billion. The move into America follows Purplebricks’ entry into the Australian market in August last year in Melbourne and Brisbane, which by October it had deemed to be a “great success”. The company currently has 437 properties for sale on its Australian website, up from less than a 100 in October. But unlike in Australia, where the estate agency business is very similar to the UK one, in the US properties are sold in a way that could suit the Purplebricks model as many realtors there are self-employed. “We are confident that with our understanding…
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