Weekly commission paid substantiation

“Over £89 million a week is paid in commission to high street estate agents”

Weekly commission calculated by Purplebricks, using number of homes sold, average house price data and an average high street estate agent commission rate of 1.3%.

Average high street estate agent commission rate of 1.3% based on research commissioned by Purplebricks and conducted by independent research agency, The Nursery, August 22. Number of homes sold and average house price data sourced from TwentyCi.

 

Average Commission Calculation Verification

In order to calculate the total amount spent on high street estate agency commission each week, the 1.3% average high street commission rate first needed substantiating for use in the calculation.

The average high street commission substantiation and research methodology are detailed below:

 

Average high street agent commission fee - claim substantiation

As part of a wider piece of customer research, independent research agency, The Nursery, were commissioned by Purplebricks to provide data on the average commission rate used by high street estates.

Research methodology

  • Online, device-agnostic survey
  • 15 minute interview

Sampling

  • Respondents were recruited from the Dynata consumer research panel
  • Must have sold a house through a traditional high street estate agent in the last 12 months
  • 501 interviews in total

Timing

Fieldwork was conducted between 5th – 26th August 2022

Question

All 501 interviewees were asked the question “How much were your estate agency fees” and were given the below options to choose from:

  1. Less than 0.5%
  2. 0.5% - 1%
  3. 1% - 1.5%
  4. 1.5% - 2%
  5. 2% - 2.5%
  6. 2.5% - 3%
  7. 3% - 5%
  8. Over 5% (please specify)
  9. Don’t know

Responses and calculation

The average high street commission rate of 1.30% was calculated using the weighted average of all responses.

Category Category Commission % Number of response Total % (exc don't know) % (inc don't know)
Less than 0.5% Less than 0.5% (0.25) 0.25% 27 6% 5%
0.5% - 1% 0.5% - 1% (0.75) 0.75% 179 39% 36%
1% - 1.5% 1% - 1.5% (1.25) 1.25% 128 28% 26%
1.5% - 2% 1.5% - 2% (1.75) 1.75% 77 17% 15%
2% - 2.5% 2% - 2.5% (2.25) 2.25% 22 5% 4%
2.5% - 3% 2.5% - 3% (2.75) 2.75% 9 2% 2%
3% - 5% 3% - 5% (4.0) 4.00% 18 4% 4%
Over 5% Over 5% (please specify) (5.0) 5.00% 4 1% 1%
Don't know Don't know   37   7%
  Total   501 100% 100%
  Total exc don't know   464    
  Weighted average % 1.30%      

 

More information about The Nursery’s Data Privacy Policy is available here: https://www.the-nursery.net/privacy

Amount paid in commission to high street estate agents - Calculation substantiation

In order to substantiate the statement “Over £89 million a week is paid in commission to high street estate agents", the below data points were used by Purplebricks to calculate the amount of money spent in commission to high street estate agents, on average each week.

  • National average house price (Jan 2021-Jan 2022; Source: Twenty Ci). This figure represents the national average accepted house price for properties sold through high street agents, last year.
  • Number of homes sold - national total (Jan 2021-Jan 2022; Source: Twenty Ci). This figure represents the total number of properties sold nationally, by high street agents, last year.
  • Average high street commission rate of 1.3% (outputs of The Nursery research findings).

The data below displays the national average house price and total number of homes sold by high street agents last year - Jan 2021 - Jan 2022 (Source: Twenty Ci).

  • Average house price - £346,779
  • Number of homes sold - 1,031,037

Note that the number of homes sold data is based on exchanged data. More Information about TwentyCi’s Data Privacy Policy is available here https://www.twentyci.co.uk/data-privacy-policy/

These data points were used to calculate the average amount paid in commission to high street estate agents, each week.

Average house price x number of properties sold = Total value sold

Total value sold x 0.013 = Total commission

Total commission / 52 = Average commission paid to high street agents, each week

346779 x 1031037 = 357541979823

357541979823 x 0.013 = 4648045737.7

4648045737.7 / 52 = 89,385,494.9557