Independent estate agents are earning up to £56,000 for each employee, according to new figures provided by Company Insight.
The firm analysed the finances of close to 50 estate agents, with a view to assessing their financial and operational performance.
The data, compiled from groups, subsidiaries, independents and online estate agents and used as a benchmarking tool by which to assess performance, shows that Connells Group, which includes Countrywide, is the largest estate agent by turnover. It also operates the most offices, 1,250, which is more than double any other agency.
The analysis from the UK Estate Agents Company Insight data also reveals that Dexters currently has the second largest operating profit of any company, group, or subsidiary.
Operating margins were healthy for the majority of estate agents, but online estate agents Purplebricks and YOPA continued to post losses.
Highlights from the research includes:
Connells Group has more than five times the number of employees as LRG
Connells Group also operates the most offices, 1,250 compared to the nearest (600 offices)
Depending on business model, turnover per employee ranges from £40,000 to £314,000
Profit per employee was as high as £56,215 for an independent
London-based businesses have the highest turnover per office. The average of all companies analysed was £733,409
Dexters has the largest profit per office of the companies analysed (and top six – on this metric – are independents)
Including the impact of acquisitions, Connells had the largest growth in turnover. Virtually all companies increased turnover
Whilst virtually all companies analysed grew turnover, operating profit performance varied
Further analysis shows that groups, subisidiaries, independents, and online agents have a broad range of turnover streams (between property sales turnover, lettings turnover, financial products turnover, conveyancing turnover and other turnover).
EYE requested to see the full detailed performance analysis of the largest estate agents groups in the UK, which Company Insight has compiled. But our request was denied, as the company intends to sell the data; “we want to tease potential customers rather than just giving data away for free”.
Paul Chapman, head of Company Insight, told EYE that the restriction of data “is deliberate”.
“A lot of time and effort went into collecting the data and we are selling the data,” he added.
