UK tops European rankings for total estate agency revenues

UK tops the European rankings for total estate agency revenues

Research from eXp UK, the network of personal estate agents, shows that where total market revenue is concerned, the UK estate agency sector is the largest in Europe, but ranks just 6th when it comes to estate agency revenue per business.

eXp analysed total revenues generated across the estate agency sector in each EU nation and what this equated to per estate agency business based on the number of agents in each country.

In terms of overall revenue, the UK sits top of the table, beating all other nations by quite a distance with agents generating an estimated annual total revenue of £13.3bn.

In Germany, agents generate £11.6bn a year; in France the overall total is £8.6bn; in Spain it’s £5.4bn; and in Belgium, agent revenue totals £4.7bn.

However, despite the UK beating all other nations when it comes to total agency revenue, due to the large number of businesses fighting it out over the same slice of pie, the UK only ranks 6th when it comes to revenue per business.

The UK’s total revenue of £13.3bn must be divided among 27,965 estate agency businesses. Only France (52,815), Spain (37,160), Germany (36,702), and Italy (33,716) have more agencies in operation and, for UK agents, it means each individual business generates estimated revenue of £476,392.

This can be compared to Denmark where the total agency revenue of £1.8bn is significantly less than the UK, but only needs to be split among 1,407 businesses. This means each agency generates annual revenue of £1.3m – more than any other EU nation.

In Finland £884m revenue is generated by 1,263 businesses which equates to an average of £699,681 and, in Austria, strong revenue of £2.2bn splits 3,522 businesses to create an average individual revenue of £627,269.

Meanwhile, the UK is also outperformed when it comes to average revenue per business by Luxembourg (£592,184) and Sweden (£478,783).
Head of eXp UK, Adam Day, commented:

“Estate agency continues to be a hugely profitable endeavour in the UK, generating by far the highest revenue of all EU nations. But it’s also an extremely busy market which forces agents to compete for the finite business available.

Of course, the revenue per business doesn’t take into account the many overheads that the traditional agency model will have and so the actual earnings of the boots on the ground will be far lower.

It’s no wonder, therefore, that more and more estate agents are opting to transfer to the self-employed because this ensures that they make and keep the maximum earnings available to them.”