Self-employed agents continued to gain market share of newly instructed sales properties in 2024 by nearly one third, says data consultancy Twenty EA.
Self-employed agents most notably increased their portfolios for terraced houses and properties within the price bracket of £200k to £350k.
A breakdown of the figures showed self-employed agents’ market share rose by 0.4 percentage points to secure 1.8% of the overall market – a tear-on-year rise of 31%.
In contrast, online agents’ market share dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 5.2% of the overall market for new instructions – which equates to a year on year drop of over 7%.
Online agents are defined as those who do not have a high street branch network, while self-employed agents are those identified as brands who contract with self-employed personnel and in this relationship, the brand does not determine the territory or the conditions of employment.
TwentyEA research found online agents were losing share from all types of property instruction but the largest declines were for terraced housing.
Meanwhile, self-employed agents saw impressive growth in share, with gains across all property types.
Further analysis shows that self-employed agents gained across every single price category – most successfully in the £200k – £350k bracket.
For online agents, their market share of new instructions fell in all price bands except £1m+ properties. Their most significant decline in market share was seen in the least expensive properties between £0-200k.
Regional analysis showed online agents lost ground across the UK, except for the South West.
Notably, they experienced a more substantial loss of market share in the North, whereas self-employed. agents gained market share everywhere, with the exception of Northern Ireland, where the model has yet to be properly established.
Katy Billany, Executive Director of TwentyEA, says: “We have been tracking the market share for both the online and self-employed business models for some time and have noted how the growth trajectory of self-employed agents is continuing to travel in one direction only.
“We’ve looked at many different metrics within our research and seen how they have continued to grow their market share while online agents are generally losing ground.”
