Online estate agent Purplebricks got a huge cash injection when it floated on the London Stock Exchange – and now SellingUp.com has produced some exclusive research to show its growth in the six months that followed.

SellingUp.com has been tracking the property inventory levels of Purplebricks since it listed with a market capitalisation of £240 million in December 2015, backed by its major shareholder, star fund manager Neil Woodford.

The research also tracked four of its main competitors – HouseSimple, Tepilo, eMoov and HouseNetwork (all privately owned companies) to compare Purplebricks’ performance with general sector activity. Between them these five businesses share approximately 75% of the current 15,000 available properties (excluding those under offer/sold subject to contract) listed by online estate agents in the UK, according to related research by SellingUp.com

Total Stock: Number of Properties for Sale

Figure 1 above shows how many properties each of the online estate agents had listed on Zoopla when examined at monthy intervals. 

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New Instructions: Month-by-Month Growth

Figure 2 shows how many new properties each online estate agent added to Zoopla every 30 days.

Comments from Oliver Lewis, SellingUp.com Research Director

“Purplebricks has clearly benefited enormously from the additional funds it has been able to access since becoming a public company in December. Its growth is likely to have been driven by substantial advertising spend which has enabled it to pull further away from its rivals to become an apparently unassailable market leader.

“It is hard to see another online estate agent seriously rivalling Purplebricks for market dominance in the near future without either a merger taking place among its key competitors or a new flotation that might bring in enough shareholder money to fund a challenge.”

“While other online estate agents are growing slowly but surely, Purplebricks has really taken off in a huge way. The good news for the other online agents is that Purplebricks may be acting as a market builder by convincing thousands of home sellers to try an alternative to the traditional high street agent, so in the longer term there could be a trickle down benefit for those rival companies.”

Research Notes

• Purplebricks listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange on December 17, 2015 with a market capitalisation of £240 millon. For the latest market capitalisation see LSE website
• The major shareholder in Purplebricks is Neil Woodford via Woodford Investment Fund and Woodford Patient Capital Trust
• High profile investors in online estate agents include Sir Charles Dunstone (HouseSimple) and James Caan (eMoov). Tepilo was founded by TV property presenter Sarah Beeny.

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