Purplebricks
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Latest property news
A Question of Property: Russell Quirk, CEO of eMoov
Are online agents like yours really gaining market share? Yes, Rightmove figures show the share of online agents has increased from 2.5% in early 2015 to 6.5% today – that’s an increase of more than 100% in two years. We have data that shows, depending on area, the propensity for people to use an online agent is increasing at a significant rate. I believe it’s all about tipping point. If you talk to business experts, they believe it’s somewhere around 12% market share. We are rapidly moving towards that. Where’s this growth coming from? Look at Countrywide and Foxtons. Their listings and revenues are dropping while the decent online operators such as Purplebricks, Yopa and ourselves are growing our share and numbers in absolute terms in a market that is down by 30%. Some say it’s all fuelled by investors’ cash Yes, it is a question of cash but it’s also about proposition and execution – I think there will be two or three winners in this market. Investors are getting fickler and I know of one online agent which is struggling to raise funding now. But it’s more about that if there are ten competitors in a new market,…
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Latest property news
Purplebricks is now “the largest estate agent in the UK by listings”
The City advisor and sole broker to Purplebricks, Zeus Capital, has claimed that the hybrid agent is now the largest estate agent in the UK by the number of listings on Rightmove. This is well ahead of recent claims by London investment firm Peel Hunt, which earlier this year said it would take another year to two years for Purplebricks to become the largest agent in the UK by market share. The new claim was made by Zeus Capital’s Research Director Robin Savage during a recorded interview with an investment website. Purplebricks says it has 16,498 properties for sale on Rightmove but won’t say how many properties it has sold since launch. Its largest competitor, Countrywide, said in its most recent trading update that it sold over 50,000 houses last year, but doesn’t reveal how many it has for sale. Not terribly happy During the interview, Robin Savage also claims that criticism of Purplebricks by agents is because the hybrid agent’s growth has come “at the cost of its competitors who are not terribly happy”. He also made several punchy predictions for Purplebricks including that Purplebricks is seven months ahead of Zeus Capital’s growth predictions for Local Property Expert recruitment.…
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Latest property news
Purplebricks CEO bats off criticisms over TrustPilot reviews
Michael Bruce has said he is proud of the company’s 27,000 TrustPilot reviews despite recent problems with its listings on the online business reviews site. This includes most recently that reviews were removed by TrustPilot after Purplebricks mistakenly invited UK customers to review on its US listing on the site. The comments are made in this morning’s Purplebricks trading update ahead of its Annual General Meeting today at the offices of its PR firm. TrustiPilot reviews The company has also been criticised for its aggressive attempts to get TrustPilot reviews of its service removed that it considers unverified or not genuine. Despite these difficulties, the company says it is on track to reach its £80m revenue target set in June within its 2016/2017 final results. And Purplebricks says its revenues for the first six months of its financial year, which began on 1st May, are already likely to be double those of the previous year and that it has increased the number of Local Property Experts from 540 to 640. This includes three LPEs in South East Kent who are all related – couple Julian and Sarah Hunt and their daughter Joanna (pictured, above), highlighted by Purplebricks. Purplebricks also says…
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How much bigger are Purplebricks’ catchment areas than high street agents?
How important is local knowledge to vendors? It’s a question that hybrid agents such as YOPA and Purplebricks are putting under the spotlight right now as they attempt to claim ‘local experts’ with large patches. But research just out suggests that local knowledge really is very important to vendors. So how local is local? Agent comparison site GetAgent looked at national data from 14,000 branches and over a million listings to find out. On average properties listed with traditional sales agents are 3km away from the high street branch they are listed with. But it’s the stark difference in catchment area size that sticks out from the GetAGent research – Purplebricks LPEs operate within an average catchment size of 10km while traditional agents’ areas are no more than 3.8km wide. “Being local is so important,” says Matthew Cousins of Surrey-based Inspire Estate Agents. “I don’t understand how an estate agent can add value if they don’t know the area, the people and the properties. “I know I can value a property accurately in the area I cover as I am likely to have sold a property very close by.” It is also clear that Purplebricks take on twice as many…
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Latest property news
Is the Purplebricks dream over? This famous investment website thinks so
One or the UK’s most respected share tipping and investor websites has given Purplebricks a significant thumbs-down in a damming blog written by one of its experts. The Motley Fool has advised investors to ‘dump’ shares in Purplebricks after concluding that the long-running period of rising share values in the company might “finally have come to an end,” he says. Purplebricks shares have been sliding since early August, when they hit their all-time peak this year at £5.08p each, after which they have dropped to £3.64p, a reduction of 28%. Purplebricks model The website says that, because the company has yet to clear a profit and trades on a price-to-sales ratio of 21, the valuation of its shares are “still sky high” and that it is not confident that the Purplebricks business model is a good one. “Essentially, it is a website and the company cannot patent its processes. Its only discernible advantages are its size and first-mover status and I’m not all that sure they are sustainable,” says The Motley Fool’s Zach Coffell (pictured, left). He also thinks rival hybrid agents including Countrywide’s recent foray into online offerings will make it more difficult to turn a profit in the…
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Escalating Purplebricks vs allAgents spat goes global
A year ago the story about a spat between Purplebricks and the UK largest agent reviews site would have stayed a specialist concern for agents and perhaps regulators. Similar stories about the company’s multiple run-ins with the Advertising Standards Authority in the past have hardly stirred much interest overseas or even within the UK’s national press. But Purplebricks’ recent expansion in the US and Australia means its minor scrapes with UK regulators and review sites now make global headlines. The latest clash between the online agent and – this time – allAgents.co.uk has been so far reported in the Australian Financial Review, The Times, and the New York Times. among others. The story broke late yesterday after allAgents removed Purplebricks’ profile page following “repeated threats of legal action”, the review site said. The arguments started after Purplebricks noticed that approximately half of its reviews on allAgents posted by users were the lowest, one-star rating and asked the review site to remove them. Purplebricks told Reuters that “Purplebricks is proud of its reputation and the quality of the service that it delivers.” The company appears to have taken legal action against allAgents, which is based in Glasgow, and the reviews site…
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Agencies & People
Purplebricks kicks off in US with 3D viewings
Purplebricks has officially launched in the US seven months after it raised £50m from the City to fund its expansion over the pond. As announced in June, Purplebricks’ US launch has kicked off in California beginning in Los Angeles before being rolled out across the state and later other key states and cities across the US. Its American team, which is led by CEO Eric Eckardt, has also revealed its fee structure, which has been adapted to fit the US way of selling properties. Agents charge vendors a 5-6% fee to sell their home and then give up to 3% of their fee to the buying agent who successfully introduces a purchaser. Purplebricks is to instead charge vendors in the US a flat fee of $3,200 to list their homes, although they will have to pay the buying agent’s fee when the property is sold. As in the UK, vendors will be able to delay the up-front listing payment by effectively taking out a loan to fund it. But buyers who purchase their properties through Purplebricks without using a buying agent will receive a cash payment of $1,000 when they buy the property, effectively inducing purchasers to cut out buying…
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Purplebricks withdraws claim that its fixed fee includes viewings
Purplebricks has removed copy on its website that suggested viewings were included in its fixed fee offering following a complaint made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The person complaining challenged whether the section on its website that said “viewings – we take care of them all” was misleading. This offending copy was on a box on its homepage (see below) which then linked to a separate page that only then clarified that vendors must pay an additional one-off fee to have viewing of their property managed by Purplebricks. The ASA approached Purplebricks with the concerns about the claims made on the site and the company subsequently agreed to “amend the section”. This has now been replaced with a pop-up box of copy that highlights how the company has one of the “UK’s largest databases of buyers”. The latest ASA intervention comes just over a month since a BBC investigation into the company by both the Your & Yours radio, and Watchdog TV programmes into the company. These looked into both claims made by Local Property Experts about the number of homes they listed every month, and that details of how the company arranges for customers to defer their fee…
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Latest property news
Purplebricks shares drop by 6% following BBC investigation
Shares in hybrid estate agent Purplebricks dropped by nearly 6% following the BBC’s Your and Yours programme in which the company’s CEO Michael Bruce defended claims that it had made misleading claims to customers. Following the programme, which was broadcast at a 12.15pm yesterday on Radio 4, the Purplebricks PLC share price dropped from a high of £4.78p to £3.92p before rallying at 4.38p. Purplebricks’ share price has been dropping since July 24th when it peaked at an all-time high of £5.13p, but today has been one of the more dramatic drops, dipping by 5.77% or 26.9p in one afternoon. On 5th July Purplebricks faced criticism from the Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint from West Sussex estate agent Arun Estates, which had complained to the ASA about ‘fees saved’ case studies on the Purplebricks website which it believed were misleading under ASA advertising codes. The complaint was upheld. During the You & Yours programme presenter Winifred Robinson claimed the hybrid estate agent has been making “exaggerated claims that it’s already been banned from making by the advertising regulator” in emails to existing and potential customers seen by the BBC programme Watchdog. Purplebricks has been censured six times over the…
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Trading Standards warns online agents not to make unsubstantiated claims
The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team (NTSEAT) has waded into the debate about the ‘fees saved’ advertising claims made by many online-only estate agents. NTSEAT says it wants to remind online agents not to make unsubstantiated and inaccurate claims about their selling fees when compared to traditional high street agents. The warning comes after last week’s ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), in which it upheld a complaint about Purplebricks’ website. This was prompted by a complaint from a West Sussex agent about nine ‘fees saved’ client case studies featured on the Purplebricks website in which, Arun Estates highlighted, did not accurately reflect the different service levels offered by traditional and online agents. “These businesses should ensure that they are making comparisons against like-for-like services,” says James Munro, Head of the NTSEAT (pictured, left). “It is wrong to make general claims about savings when the headline price does not include facilities such as a sales board, floor plans, photographs, accompanied viewings, sales progression or other facilities which are normally included with traditional high street firms. “We recognise that online-only agents have a role in the marketplace for customers who wish to do more of the work themselves but…
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