Online Estate Agents Grab More Market Share

A new report claims that online estate agents now have a share of 8% of the overall market.

This is up from 7% in the first quarter of the year and represents a 13% increase in the number of properties sold through an online agent.

The TwentyCi Property and Homemover Report is published every quarter and provides data and analysis for the whole of the UK property market.

In the most recent edition, it said that a total of 15,986 sellers successfully exchanged when listed with an online agent during Q2 of 2018.

However, this is against the 192,653 successful exchanges by high street agents in the same period, showing that online estate agents still have plenty of catching up to do.

That said, It does show that there is definite momentum towards online agents and the way we buy and sell properties is most certainly changing.

This is at least partly driven by the cheaper prices on offer and the recent move towards no sale no fee online estate agents – with all but a handful now offering such pricing.

Overall Market Confidence Is Gradually Returning

Colin Bradshaw, TwentyCi’s chief customer officer, said: “The growth in market share for online agents continues unabated, with this group now representing nearly 8% of all exchanges.

“It is interesting to note that almost all of this growth has been in properties below £1m. Logic might dictate that a fixed-price service would be more attractive to sellers of higher-priced properties, but perhaps this group of vendors is motivated by factors other than just price.”

The report didn’t just focus on the market share of online agents, going on to claim that confidence is gradually returning to the UK property market with new instructions up nearly 7% year on year.

It appears house prices are remaining stable with no significant discounting.

However, London still appears to be bucking the trend with average asking prices up 3.1% as demand outstrips supply.

Across the country terraced and semi-detached houses continue to make up the largest proportion of property sales, accounting for over 55% of all exchanges.