New property sector analysis by industry PR firm, ProperPR, has revealed which of the industry’s biggest brands are best, when it comes to the modern-day marketing mix required to stand out from the crowd in what has become an extremely competitive marketplace.
ProperPR’s Property Brand Index looked at 100 of the industry’s biggest names, including 50 of the most prominent estate agency businesses, analysing their presence across a number of digital platforms that now reflect the modern consumer and their search habits.
These are:
- Online press mentions – coverage in all publications (nationals, trades, specialist, local, regional).
- Search dominance/domain authority (DA) – the search engine ranking score that considers a website’s natural search visibility.
- Instagram – number of followers and engagement.
- Facebook – page likes.
- Twitter/X – followers and engagement.
Each media channel has been evaluated for how and if each brand utilises them and then a weighted score methodology is applied to reveal the estate agencies that are marketing themselves well – and those that are not. The score is out of ten with the highest of ten being the best of the top 100 scored.
The first release of the research looks at the 50 biggest estate agency brands specifically and shows that there is a huge difference between the best and the worst and indeed, some sizable UK property businesses are almost invisible when it comes to digital presence.
The best 20 of the top 50 agents
- Savills
- Knight Frank
- eXp UK
- Foxtons
- Nestseekers
- Strutt & Parker
- Purplebricks
- Hamptons
- Chancellors
- Winkworth
- Your Move
- Hunters
- Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward
- YOPA
- Fine & Country
- Andrews
- Belvoir
- Martin & Co
- Leaders
- Haart
The bottom 10 of 50
41. Mann & Co
42. Pattinson
43. eweMove
44. Farrel Heyworth
45. Felicity J Lord
46. Douglas Allen
47. Wards
48. Keller Williams UK
49. Darlows
50. The Agency
“Our index has provided some rather eye-opening insight for, let’s say, some of the traditional businesses that may have performed well when estate agency marketing was predominantly about high street facias and for sale board dominance,” said ProperPR co-founder Russell Quirk.
“But in the 21st century brand awareness is distinctly digital and a strong presence in social media, in the press, and within online publications is essential in order to be seen by a generation of sellers and buyers brought up with Google, Instagram, X and Facebook, and being one that predominantly digests its news on a screen.
Despite this reality, many property brands still have a negligible press and social media presence. Some almost none”.
Quirk is set to discuss the ProperPR findings on stage at today’s Kerfuffle Conference at Wembley.
James Lockett, ProperPR co-founder, commented: “In the past 20 years brand awareness methodology has changed and so have the channels that represent that awareness. It is no longer a question of the number of branch offices an estate agency business has, nor the volume of for-sale boards displayed or hastily Sellotaped pie-charts in windows showing market share. The modern era is about a digital presence in an age that is inarguably digital.”
Alex Pericli, head of research at ProperPR, added: “The property brand index offers a valuable snapshot view of brand visibility within the sector, drawing on a balanced mix of digital indicators. The integration of these allows for a nuanced understanding of how property brands are performing across search, press, and audience engagement channels.
“The data considers a market cross-section of 100 or so property companies including portals, conveyancers, house builders and financial services providers – and these will all form separate reports in due course.”
Housebuilder, portals and property industry supplier analysis are to follow in the coming weeks.
Full data tables can be viewed online, here.
Wembley prepares to host Kerfuffle Conference 2025
