News Blog

Investors attending The Home Truths seminar,  have been told that the future of estate agency will be bricks and clicks – customer, not technology led. They also heard that online, or hybrid, agents have been raising their prices – erasing claims about savings for sellers. 

Speakers at the seminar included Countrywide’s head of retail Sam Tyrer, eMoov’s Russell Quirk, and Mark Goddard, head of property services at Zoopla.

Anthony Codling at Jefferies Investment Bank, (who held the seminar) is quoted as reporting  “There was agreement in the room that the future structure of the UK residential services industry will be customer, rather than technology, led”  Adding: “It was interesting to note that the hybrids have all been raising fees over the last two years, suggesting that the headline grabbing low fees may well be unsustainable and over time will be less of a differentiator.

“Low fees are nothing new in the industry: many traditional agents have launched with low fees, but we cannot think of one which has successfully changed the mould.”

“The fact that hybrid fees are increasing in our view demonstrates that consumers are willing to pay for customer service when they fully understand what they are paying for.”