UK Estate Agent Advertising Survey

Press release: 15 December 2009

Home.co.uk's Dec 09 Estate Agent property advertising survey reveals that the average sales agent office advertises on only 3 of the major portals. Moreover, shockingly 6.9% of UK sales agents don't advertise on any of the top 11 property advertising portals.

According to the survey results from the Property Search Engine, which covered 14,660 estate agent offices across the UK, the eleven largest property sales portals (in order) are Rightmove, Zoopla, Primelocation, Findaproperty, Fish4, Homes24, Propertylive, Mouseprice, Look4aproperty, Propertyindex and Propertytoday. 13,664 agents (93% of those surveyed) advertise on at least one of these portals. Rightmove and Zoopla carry properties for 70% and 49% of the agent offices respectively.

Number of Portals	Number of Offices	Percentage of Offices
10	1	0.007 %
9	10	0.07 %
8	214	1.5 %
7	523	3.6 %
6	1578	10.8 %
5	1756	12.0 %
4	1988	13.6 %
3	2237	15.2 %
2	2330	15.9 %
1	3007	20.5 %
0	1016	6.9 %

Congratulations must go to Property Angels, of Beckenham, which has the best online advertising profile for the UK of any agent office. They advertise on 10 of the 11 biggest portals. At the other end of the scale, 1 in 5 agents only advertise on only 1 major portal and 1 in 14 agents advertise on none of the major portals.

Does it mater how many property portals an Agent Advertises on? Yes indeed it does. Further analysis by Home.co.uk shows that the agents that advertise most widely have by far the lowest typical Time on Market figures. Hence, just being on Rightmove isn't enough to have the best property sales turnover.

Agents with the best sales turnover rates are those that advertise their clients' properties on 7 or more of the major portals. Typical time on market figures, from Home.co.uk, show that properties listed for sale at branches which advertise on 7 or more portals remain on the books for 56 fewer days (31% less marketing time) than those at agents that only advertise on one of the major portals. This clearly shows that agents with minimal online advertising are not attracting buyers as effectively as they could be.

"As we've being saying time and time again, agents really need to consider reach when planning their online advertising campaigns. More portals = greater reach and a much faster sales turnover," commented Doug Shephard, Business Development Director at Home.co.uk. "Moreover, prospective vendors can easily find how widely an agent advertises online and this encourages more instructions."

These startling figures clearly indicate that agents can reinvigorate their businesses by advertising more widely.

Notes for Editors

Over the last 28 years, Home.co.uk has become established as a dynamic, innovative and ethical service. By providing the UK's most comprehensive Property Search and Estate Agents directory coupled with detailed House Price analysis, Home.co.uk delivers the real power of the Internet to inform and empower estate agents, homebuyers, renters, landlords and sellers in across the UK.