Online agents’ market share rises - but only three brands really matter

A new survey by property consultancy TwentyCi shows that the market share of online and hybrid agents in the third quarter of this year hit 8.3 per cent.

This is an uplift from the 7.0 per cent recorded in the same quarter of 2019, before the pandemic hit.

The consultancy says this segment of the market is now dominated by just three brands - Purplebricks, Yopa and Strike - which when combined represent nearly 70 per cent of all hybrid and online activity. 

But overall the figures appear not to be good news for the online estate agency sector as TwentyCi warns: “With many sectors and categories having seen a significant shift online during the pandemic the estate agency sector has not followed suit with a relatively low and slow rate of growth persisting.”

There continues to be a significant variation across the UK in the market share achieved by the onliners; across England only half of the regions have seen a positive growth in exchanges over the last two years.

A glimmer of good news for the online firms is that there has been an improved level of penetration into higher value properties of £1m-plus. 

The consultancy says: “This will be driven both by the increase in the average property price coming to the market (making fewer properties available in the lower banding) in addition to the significant uplift of activity across all price bands within the residential property market.”

However, there’s actually been a small drop in the proportion of lower priced properties (below £200,000) won for instruction by online firms. 

TwentyCi say it achieves it data by analysing 99.6 per cent of all sale and rental property moves.