Online agents ‘in limbo’ as high street firms command 93% of market, says new report

Online agents are “in limbo”, says the latest TwentyCi report out this morning, with high street agents commanding 92.7% market share.

The report says that altogether, online agents had 7.3% of all exchanges in the second quarter of this year.

TwentyCi says that online agents’ market share is holding steady, but adds: “Whether they can move beyond this figure to pose a challenge to traditional agents remains to be seen.”

Generally speaking, the lower the price of the property, the better the online firms did.

During the three months between April and the end of June, online agents had a market share of 9.01% in properties under £200,000, up 1.67% from the same period in 2018.

In all other price brackets, the sector lost market share.

Market share for properties between £200,000 and £350,000 was 7.4%, down 2.92%.

In properties worth between £350,000 and £1m, market share was 4.78%, down 12.89%.

And in properties worth £1m plus, market share was 0.96%, down 10.05%.

Twenty Ci puts the actual number of exchanges in the second quarter of this year at 217,847 for high street agents and 17,466 for online firms.

The price of properties that exchanged in the second quarter rose slightly for high street agents, but fell for online agents (up 1.06% to £309,093 for the former, and down 3.68% to £233,189 for the latter).

The report also says that online agents experienced falling market share in the south, east and in London, but ‘modest’ growth in the north-east, Humber, the north-west, Scotland and Wales.

The highest market share was in Yorkshire and the Humber at 11.24%, which was up 4.84% on the year before; the second highest was 10.85%% in the west midlands, but this was a 1.38% fall from the year before.

The lowest market share, of 4.48%, was in the east of England, down 10.56% on the year before. Another low market share, of 4.83%, was in inner London, representing a 23.67% fall.

This morning’s TwentyCi Property & Homemover report does not just look at online and high street sectors, but at the industry as a whole.

It finds that in the second quarter of the year, property exchanges were up 6% year on year, together with a “small” uplift in new properties coming to the market.

It says that in the 12 months to the end of June, there were just over 1m SSTCs (1,027,000).

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11 Comments

  1. Property Poke In The Eye

    TwentyCi need to define online as I have a website and am online and a high street office.  So does this make me online or offline agent?

     

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    1. ValueCounts31

      Agreed 100% ‘Property Poke In The Eye’

      Further more, online, high street, hybrid. Who cares, it is about service and outcome. The best companies will be those that have a blend of all.

       

       

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    2. krosotv

      I don’t follow the numbers close enough, but we know how many properties PB claim to list, we know what % of the market PB claim this article now has the number of exchanges onliners do.  Can someone put the lot together to work out the real sale percentage of Purple Bricks list to completion?

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  2. Ostrich17

     Online agents are “in limbo”,

    Interesting choice of words – as it originally refers to “the borders of hell”  or specifically a place between heaven and hell where the soul resides awaiting judgement.

    Given that last year’s TwentyCi report revealed that – “Online estate agents now represent nearly 8% of all exchanges” – it would appear that they are definitely heading in the wrong direction !

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  3. Property Pundit

    Let’s see the figures with Housesimple’s free listings stripped out.

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    1. Lil Bandit

      Bitterness doesn’t look good on you

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      1. Property Pundit

        Still think I’m an agent? Get over yourself.

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        1. Lil Bandit

          Just a bit of banter, grow up 😉

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  4. jeremy1960

    Why would a seller with a lower priced property use a cheap online call centre when the cost is more likely above that of a local agent incentivised by a percentage fee? Could it be that they fell for the no commission adverts?

    Why would fewer sellers of higher value properties use a cheap online call centre, could it be that they have more sense and understand value?

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    1. Property Pundit

      This report shows there is clearly an inverse relationship between asking/selling prices and popularity of online-only call centre listers. Anyone got a definitive explanation for this? On the face of it, it doesn’t make sense.

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      1. ARC

        I would say it is the same dynamic as why someone with a million pound house doesn’t drive a 20 year old Nissan Sunny.

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