hybrid estate agent
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Latest property news
Exclusive: Growing ‘semi franchised’ regional estate agency launches in London
NEXA now has operation in seven territories with plans for several more as it also plans a brand refresh.
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Latest property news
UK estate agents must charge fees of 3% not 1.5%, says leading figure
Daniel McPeake says sellers will pay more if they see that a higher fee will enable agents to co-broke and sell their home quicker and for more.
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Latest property news
‘Become a hybrid estate agent for just £99’ offer launched
Telford and London based NU:move wants to give agents looking for new opportunities a chance to get back on their feet after the crisis.
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Latest property news
Hybrid estate agency with purple ambitions raises £750,000 ahead of Seedrs launch
Nu:Move is owned by a profitable investment platform group and hopes to raise several million pounds to expand from 20 to 100 franchisees across the UK.
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Features
Essential guide: hybrid and online estate agents
The online agent model is 24 years old while hybrids have been around since 2015, and yet they've only grabbed 7.5% of the sales market. Nigel Lewis looks at way they haven't fulfilled their potential...yet.
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Latest property news
Interview: Founder of new hybrid explains how he outfoxed his bigger competition
Founder of HouseFox.co.uk Neil Urch says his mix of traditional and hybrid models has delivered profitability in just 18 months, unlike other hybrids.
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Latest property news
Hybrid agency Yopa overtakes Savills and Foxtons by listings size
Read how hybrid estate agent Yopa says Rightmove listings data shows it has overtaken both Savills, which has helped fund it, and Foxtons.
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Latest property news
‘Overcrowded hybrid and online agency sector will soon consolidate like portals did’
The current over-supply of online and hybrid agents will soon consolidate down from around 80 at the moment to a handful of main players, it has been claimed. Bob Scarff, the former MD of Countrywide’s Estate Agency Division and now MD of telephony technology firm Callwell, says the current position where many are jockeying for position behind Purplebricks is very similar to the mid-noughties. At that time a huge number of property portals vied to be No.2 in the market behind Rightmove. “I remember one day at Countrywide when we sat down and counted the number of places that were displaying our stock and it was nearly 100 or a similar ridiculous number,” he says. “So just like the portals, I believe the hybrids or ‘agents without branches’ as I prefer to call them will also go through a consolidation.” AllAgents.com currently lists 78 online and hybrid agencies operating in the UK and Bob says these agents will boil down to a key half a dozen including Hatched, Yopa, Purplebricks and Ewemove but who else survives through the process is up for debate. He says he can’t make up his mind about the recently enlarged Emoov and that he has…
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Latest property news
Both Purplebricks and OpenRent change claims made on their websites following ASA investigations
Two of the UK’s largest online agents have been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about misleading claims on their websites. The first is Purplebricks, its 11th referral since it started up in 2015. A complainant challenged whether the way the company provides information about its standard fee of £849 was misleading. An icon is positioned next to text saying “our standard fee £849” which, when hovered over, pops up with the text: “This is our standard fee for everywhere outside of London and surrounding areas, where we charge £1199 inc VAT. Around 40% of our customers pay us a fixed fee of £300 to cover ALL viewings”. The complainant understood that the average fee was therefore likely to be higher than £849 and challenged whether this was misleading. The ASA says it agreed, saying that “we noted that it was only when a user hovered over the icon that information about the additional cost for the viewing service became visible”. “We approached the advertiser with our concerns and they agreed to amend their website.” Instead, the Purplebricks site now says “viewing service is optional £300” on the main page, rather than as a pop-up. OpenRent complaint The second…
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Housing Market
Strewth! Purplebricks launches in Australia
It is two years since hybrid estate agency Purplebricks launched in the UK and since then the company has recruited more than 300 Local Experts, grown revenues to £18.6 million, grabbed a two percent market share and recently claimed a property book value of £2.76 billion. It’s all come at a heavy price. Marketing and advertising costs this year will increase its annual losses to £11.9 million, up from £5.4 million the year before. But the ambitions of backer Neil Woodford and founding brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce seem to know no bounds. As well as predicting a turnover of £73 million and profits of £44m by 2018, it has just been announced that Purplebricks has officially launched in Australia. It will initially focus on two of the country’s juiciest property markets, Melbourne and Brisbane, before rolling out further afield. In its statement released today Purplebricks says Australia’s traditional model of charging 2.2% of the sales value plus marketing-costs makes its offering a ‘compelling proposition’. The company is charging vendors a flat fee of Aus$5,400 to include photography, marketing and advertising on the main Australian portals. “Australia is a natural second market for us to target. It is a large…
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