Estate Agency is a multi-billion-pound trade. With almost 16,000 businesses in the UK employing over 100,000 people, it’s a powerhouse industry showing no signs of slowing down (even if it does sometimes ebb and flow). Trends emerge throughout the sector, changing the way we interact with estate agencies and sometimes newer pioneering ways of working within the property market emerge. In the year 2000, online estate agencies came roaring on to the market and have changed the way users search for homes, and homeowners sell, ever since. Over the years, digital – or online – estate agents have grown in popularity, and even more so have the hybrid agencies that amalgamate traditional high street agents with accessible online estate agents. So looking at the latest research about online estate agents, are they a thriving driving force looking to threaten the world of traditional agencies?

How Online Estate Agents Work? The constantly-evolving industry has metamorphized itself in the online space. Since the 00s, and indeed since Purplebricks’ inception in 2014, more and more agencies are moving online. Online estate agents work in a specific way, and that is that they offer you a lot of the control. You choose when you browse the thousands of properties online and you can make bookings for viewings through their online forms, or through apps such as Renterz. Online estate agents take the hassle out of finding the time to meet with a high street agency, they remove the frustration of multiple emails and calls to find the right property and best of all, they allow you to pick and choose what you see and when. But how do they compare to high-street agencies?

High Street Estate Agents vs Online Estate Agents.

Market research shows that the market share goes to traditional estate agents, with online estate agents taking no more than approximately 5%. However, that’s not to say that traditional agents are the better option; it is to say, that traditional estate agents have a longstanding history in our communities and that online estate agents are therefore newer, by comparison. Overtime, they will take more of the market share, with the future of estate agents looking to be predominantly online – especially considering the way we consume information as a society through our multiple devices. As much as 95% of buyers or tenants start their search on Rightmove or Zoopla but as they move through the customer funnel, some move to high street estate agents, and some remain using digital estate agents. Perhaps the starkest of statistics is when we are comparing traditional estate agents with online estate agents, is the fees. Online estate agents used a fix-fee method, meaning that there are no hidden charges, and regardless of what you sell your house for, the fee remains at the fixed rate. The same, however, cannot be said for traditional estate agents who can charge around 2% + VAT of the overall house price (some charge more) for a sale. It seems that these high costs have paved the way for online estate agents in modern day Britain.

The Rise of Online Estate Agents.

Whilst traditional estate agents still have the lion’s share of the market, online estate agents are gaining on them with a dramatic rise in homeowners choosing to go digital. In fact, Rightmove boasts over 127 million site visits per month with 1.1 million homes listed, so if you want to browse the market of houses available, it makes sense to start online, where these estate agents have changed the way we list and view properties. 2016 saw its first hit to traditional estate agents, with their fees down 0.5% from 2011 to coincide with the increase in popularity for the online agents. From this year, we saw more and more online estate agents emerging, with even more damage to the traditional side of the sector. Consumer trends show more people going online for their property search and completion, so the change to online estate agents shows no sign of slowing down. .

The Future of Buying Houses with Online Estate Agents in the UK.

Rightmove’s growth alone has shown a 58% increase in 12 months from 2.77% to 4.38%. These figures may seem small, but the growth is incredibly strong and so the projection for the entire industry is looking bright. Even in current times, research cites that the average sale price across online estate agent businesses was around 96%. Read enough about digital agents and want to list your home to sell or let using exclusively online estate agents? Then try the UK’s first fully-integrated property management app, Renterz, where you can be in complete control of your home listing; it’s as easy as ordering an Uber.