Online agencies' market share has increased 58% in one year - claim

A lengthy analysis of the online agency sector, based on material supplied by an online agent, suggests that its market share has risen 58 per cent in 12 months - although it remains small in absolute terms, at 3.7 per cent.

The analysis is based on material from the Settled agency which looks at homes listed on Rightmove in November 2016 and the same month last year. 

“As the UK’s largest property portal, with over 1.1 million homes listed and 127 million visits to the site every month, market share on Rightmove is a good indicator of market share in the property space” says the analysis, which is published on the website ITProPortal.

It continues: “Looking at [Rightmove’s] reports, a strong upward trend for the top online estate agents can be seen from November 2016 to November 2017, increasing from 2.77 per cent to 4.38 per cent - a 58 per cent growth over just one year.”

It goes on to say that if this growth continued at its current rate, by 2020, online agents’ market share would reach 17.28 per cent. 

The analysis also looks in detail at Settled’s services, payment options and prices compared with Purplebricks, Yopa, Tepilo and HouseSimple. 

Although published just a few days ago, the analysis is already out of date, as it does not account for Yopa’s decision this week to introduce a No Sale, No Fee choice for customers; nor does it include the possibility that online agents could advertise on OnTheMarket which has now dropped its ban on them.

The conclusion, perhaps unsurprisingly, suggests Settled’s services are slightly lower cost than rivals. 

It’s a lengthy piece and obviously written through the eyes of one player in the sector; but it’s an interesting read, which you can see here.