Purplebricks ‘tells City it is now 4th biggest agent in UK’
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Online agency Purplebricks says it has become the fourth largest estate agency in the UK.
It also says, in what looks like a pitch to investors and which is headed ”24 hours estate agency”, that it is 3.8 times larger than Foxtons, and has double the number of properties for sale than the next largest online agency. It claims that 70% of traffic happens when agents are closed.
The document says: “A national property business driven by a mix of property experts market-leading technology and customer facing software that is changing the experience of selling, buying and letting property. We are rapidly becoming a major brand through extensive advertising and marketing, by exceeding customers expectations and by charging a fraction of the traditional cost.”
Purplebricks also says in the document that its customer reviews rate it as 9.4% out of 10, and that it has six times more reviews than its nearest competitor.
In the apparent pitch, it says that it charges an average of £1,080 fee, compared with the average estate agent fee of £4,425. It estimates that this year, there will be 1.5m “transactions to market”, including properties which are sold, withdrawn and which will be unsold by the end of 2015.
Purplebricks is said to be planning to launch on the stock market in the first week of December at a valuation of £250m. The 22-page document that has been passed to EYE is called “Purplebricks Test Marketing Presentation”. The presentation team are named as Purplebricks chairman Nick Discombe, CEO Michael Bruce, chief financial officer Neil Cartwright, and non-executive director and former Capita boss Paul Pindar.
In what appears to be the prospectus, it says it wants to scale more quickly to build out a national footprint.
Its average fee is £1,080 compared with the normal fee of £4,425.
The Purplebricks prospectus puts its market share at well ahead of other online players – 4,000 properties for sale ahead of 1,958 (emoov), 1,611 (House Simple), 1,426 (House Network), 1,378 (Tepilo) and 924 (Hatched).
Hatched yesterday sold to bricks and mortar high street chain Connells.
One analyst said of the Purplebricks prospectus that it raised more questions than answers.
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