"It makes sense that agents in cities with lower property values and fees need to sell more properties to survive as a business. In contrast, agents in cities like London can get by with fewer completions, as each one generates a large fee"
- Colby Short - GetAgent
The latest research by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, looked at for-sale stock listed across 30 major British cities over the last six months before comparing this to the number of unique agents to have listed this stock, to reveal the average number of homes currently on the books of agents within these major cities.
The research shows that over the last six months, a total of 226,120 homes have been listed for sale across the 30 major cities analysed by GetAgent. These homes have been listed by 15,046 unique agents, meaning that on average, these agents are listing 15 properties each.
Of course, this current gauge of buyer market activity differs drastically when breaking the market down from one city to the next.
Plymouth is home to the nation’s busiest estate agents at present, where 4,211 homes have been listed in the last six months by 167 individual agents. This means that those agents who have bolstered their stock levels over the last six months are listing an average of 25 properties.
Agents in Newcastle aren’t far behind in this respect. While the city has seen more than three times the number of new listings over the last six months when compared to Plymouth (12,652), these homes are being marketed by 550 unique agents, meaning that on average, these agents are listing 23 properties each.
Across both Bristol (22) and Norwich (20), agents have listed 20 or more properties in the last six months, while in Glasgow, Liverpool, Cornwall and Nottingham they’ve averaged 18 listings.
In contrast, agents in Bath, Bolton, Chester and Bradford have seen the most muted level of market activity. Over the last six months, those agents who have listed homes for sale have done so at a rate of 10 listings each.
Co-founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: “It makes sense that agents in cities with lower property values and fees need to sell more properties to survive as a business. In contrast, agents in cities like London can get by with fewer completions, as each one generates a large fee.
"A good exception to this rule seems to be Bristol, which has relatively high property values, yet the average agent still lists 22 properties every 6 months.
"However, at the other end of the scale are Bolton and Bradford, where not only are the average fees very low, but the average agent also lists only 10 properties every 6 months.
"Obviously, this is just an average, and many agents will be doing better than this, but it does demonstrate how tough the market is in some locations. Hopefully, agents in these areas have strong Lettings departments.”
