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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Website boss accuses agents of charging “vast” fees up to £7,000

The head of a For Sale By Owner website claims that some agents are making “vast amounts” of up to £7,000 in commission.

He says this is still the case despite the market in some areas being depressed by Brexit uncertainty and despite traditional agents apparently tempering their commission because of rival online and other fixed-fee competitors.

“Slower market conditions and a drop in buyer demand has not only impacted the asking price of the nation’s sellers, but estate agents have also had to readjust their expectations due to dwindling stock levels and competition from fixed fee agents” claims Paul Telford, founder and chief executive of private sales website OkayLah.

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He says he has researched average commission earned by agents in different parts of England. 

“This research demonstrates the vast amounts of money that some agents are still making due to the high cost of property in some areas of England, regardless of whether or not the buyer has taken the brunt of Brexit market uncertainty and lowered their asking price” says Telford.

Despite running a service which allows sellers to by-pass agents completely he then gives advice to vendors who choose to instruct property professionals, saying they should “shop around, negotiate on fee, and consider alternative options such as for sale by owner platforms or other fixed fee models.”

Telford’s research claims that across England, home sellers are paying £3,425 on average to sell a home, with the highest typical individual commission being in the Windsor and Maidenhead area - £6,941.

This is higher even than the all-London average of £6,804. 

The figures are achieved by using a notional 1.42 per cent agency fee - OkayLah says this average comes from the property consultancy The Advisory and was quoted by Which? back in July last year. House sale prices are based on data from HM Land Registry covering the period from October 2017 to September 2018 inclusive.

To produce regional data OkayLah divided the total fees paid by the number of transactions to find the average fee for each region.

The FSBO site’s figures are below - they claim to show the highest average agency fees by county, the higher total fees paid, and regional breakdowns.

County data

Highest average fee per property

Region

Avg price

Fee*

Transactions**

Total sold value

Total fees paid

Avg fee per property

Windsor & Maidenhead

£488,820

1.42%

1778

£869,121,960

£12,341,532

£6,941

Surrey

£443,998

1.42%

17117

£7,599,913,766

£107,918,775

£6,305

Wokingham

£415,775

1.42%

2834

£1,178,306,350

£16,731,950

£5,904

Buckinghamshire

£404,915

1.42%

7857

£3,181,417,155

£45,176,124

£5,750

Hertfordshire

£401,094

1.42%

16068

£6,444,778,392

£91,515,853

£5,696

Brighton and Hove

£358,392

1.42%

3857

£1,382,317,944

£19,628,915

£5,089

Oxfordshire

£353,984

1.42%

10310

£3,649,575,040

£51,823,966

£5,027

West Berkshire

£351,090

1.42%

2231

£783,281,790

£11,122,601

£4,985

Bracknell Forest

£347,796

1.42%

1809

£629,162,964

£8,934,114

£4,939

Bath and North East Somerset

£336,521

1.42%

2918

£981,968,278

£13,943,950

£4,779

Highest total fees paid and highest total value of property sold

Region

Avg price

Fee*

Transactions**

Total value of properties sold

Total fees paid

Avg fee per property

Surrey

£443,998

1.42%

17117

£7,599,913,766

£107,918,775

£6,305

Essex

£310,554

1.42%

23946

£7,436,526,084

£105,598,670

£4,410

Kent

£290,175

1.42%

25233

£7,321,985,775

£103,972,198

£4,120

Hampshire

£314,002

1.42%

22611

£7,099,899,222

£100,818,569

£4,459

Greater Manchester

£165,146

1.42%

40654

£6,713,845,484

£95,336,606

£2,345

Hertfordshire

£401,094

1.42%

16068

£6,444,778,392

£91,515,853

£5,696

West Midlands

£178,300

1.42%

34524

£6,155,629,200

£87,409,935

£2,532

West Yorks

£154,117

1.42%

33874

£5,220,559,258

£74,131,941

£2,188

West Sussex

£322,412

1.42%

14640

£4,720,111,680

£67,025,586

£4,578

Devon

£252,547

1.42%

14838

£3,747,292,386

£53,211,552

£3,586

Highest number of property transactions

Region

Avg price

Fee*

Transactions**

Total value of properties sold

Total fees paid

Avg fee per property

Greater Manchester

£165,146

1.42%

40654

£6,713,845,484

£95,336,606

£2,345

West Midlands

£178,300

1.42%

34524

£6,155,629,200

£87,409,935

£2,532

West Yorks

£154,117

1.42%

33874

£5,220,559,258

£74,131,941

£2,188

Kent

£290,175

1.42%

25233

£7,321,985,775

£103,972,198

£4,120

Essex

£310,554

1.42%

23946

£7,436,526,084

£105,598,670

£4,410

Hampshire

£314,002

1.42%

22611

£7,099,899,222

£100,818,569

£4,459

Lancashire

£142,328

1.42%

20005

£2,847,271,640

£40,431,257

£2,021

Surrey

£443,998

1.42%

17117

£7,599,913,766

£107,918,775

£6,305

Hertfordshire

£401,094

1.42%

16068

£6,444,778,392

£91,515,853

£5,696

Norfolk

£222,819

1.42%

15937

£3,551,066,403

£50,425,143

£3,164

Regional data

Region

Avg price

 Fee*

Transactions**

Total value of properties sold

Total fees paid

Avg fee per property

London

£479,137

1.42%

87116

£41,740,498,892

£592,715,084

£6,804

South East

£322,864

1.42%

142007

£45,848,948,048

£651,055,062

£4,585

East

£289,386

1.42%

97424

£28,193,141,664

£400,342,612

£4,109

South West

£252,717

1.42%

99090

£25,041,727,530

£355,592,531

£3,589

West Midlands

£192,303

1.42%

83866

£16,127,683,398

£229,013,104

£2,731

East Midlands

£187,670

1.42%

78645

£14,759,307,150

£209,582,162

£2,665

North West

£159,231

1.42%

112205

£17,866,514,355

£253,704,504

£2,261

Yorks & Humber

£159,079

1.42%

83582

£13,296,140,978

£188,805,202

£2,259

North East

£128,438

1.42%

38814

£4,985,192,532

£70,789,734

£1,824

TOTAL

N/A

N/A

1040602

£239,332,388,246

£3,398,519,913

N/A

AVG

£217,224

1.42%

N/A

N/A

N/A

£3,425

* Average fee is 1.42% Inc. VAT says The Advisory. Quoted by WHICH? July 2018

** Last twelve months available from Land Registry (October 2017 to September 2018)

  • Carl Smales

    You get paid what you believe your worth!
    (It’s that simple)

    Have a great day today (unless you have other plans)

  • Simon Shinerock

    He’ll get apoplexy if he goes to Spain or the US 5% commission, we have the lowest commission rates in the world and we do the most underrated job in the world

  • icon

    Farcical to suggest that average commission rates are the same nationwide. Clearly a flawed attempt to flog an inferior product.

  • Paul Singleton

    Another clueless ‘cheap and nasty’ agent. Thinks fees are the only differentiator! What a clown! It’s all about VALUE FOR MONEY not who can go cheaper than the rest. Cheaper agents do a worse job. FACT. The end.......

  • Michael Day

    OkayLah! Yawn!

    I didn’t spend more than a couple of minutes but no listings in Greater London, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds - I gavd up as would a seller or buyer.

  • icon

    More free publicity for this numpty.

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    Free publicity to an audience of agents - how useful for an FSBO site :/

     
  • icon

    Yawn ! So called 'online agents' are not proper estate agents at all. They haven't a clue.

  • Sean  Williams

    Traditional agents are the only ones selling anything in central London so their fees are completely justified. Purplebricks started offering fees of below £300 when they first appeared which has now risen to £895 - a 335% increase and rising. No one seems to talk about this fact!

  • icon

    Wow, thisis great news! I think I’ll go an open an office in windsor! They clearly appreciate a hard working estate agent than some bloke in his back bedroom in his Y-fronts banging away on his keyboard!

  • icon

    High street agents are there when our clients needs us, we have a comprehensive process of due diligence, we check everything relating to a sale and we see it through from start to finish. Our fees, in the main, represent value for money if you consider what we do. How can a seller check out the financial suitability of a buyer? How does a seller go about comprehensively checking a chain? How does a seller get round the problem of talking to 3rd parties?

  • Richard Copus

    OK La La! What a ridiculous press release. £7,000 is not a lot of money when you are dealing with a house or flat with a complicated title, have problems interconnected with a sale, are dealing with a rural property or are having to spend hours doing PB's sale chasing for them. We really have reached rock bottom as an industry when the fee means everything. If we have a cliff edge Brexit, the next few years will be not very good at all and that will sort out the men from the boys and the women from the girls. My guess is that we will then be left with a load of downmarket agents fighting for the lower end of the market until they go bust and a good number of stable of mid to high market agents trading on their reputation and/or specialist knowledge. About half of agents will disappear for good, unfortunately some very good established ones who will have been squeezed by the likes of PB and La La.

  • icon

    Well Richard Copus, here's the latest news which blows your predictions out of the water. There is a new style agency that will be launching this year , it's an artificially intelligent estate agent , it's been fully tried and tested and the results were amazing, to put it in perspective, purple bricks only has about 5% of its functionality, and the traditional estate agents just cannot come close to the personal service it's capabilities can provide and that's on every level . On top of that all the profits from its residential sales will be going into dementia research . It's a game changer no doubt about it .

  • icon

    Well Richard Copus, here's the latest news which blows your predictions out of the water. There is a new style agency that will be launching this year , it's an artificially intelligent estate agent , it's been fully tried and tested and the results were amazing, to put it in perspective, purple bricks only has about 5% of its functionality, and the traditional estate agents just cannot come close to the personal service it's capabilities can provide and that's on every level . On top of that all the profits from its residential sales will be going into dementia research . It's a game changer no doubt about it .

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