The huge change, and opportunity, in the premium market.

The top ten brands for selling high end homes ALL lost market share in 2024. 

Put another way by industry statistician Chris Watkin, in 2019 the top ten biggest ‘posh’ estate agency brands sold 4 in 10 homes over £1m (39.6%)…

In 2024, that’s down to 3 in 10 homes (32.4%).

I don’t believe this is down to these companies cost cutting or consolidating etc. (at least I haven’t heard much to suggest this is the case). 

My belief is that new companies and agents coming through the ranks and (brace yourself for the cliché…) disrupting an otherwise comfortable position for these big brands. 

A few reasons for this might be: 

The perception of big brands having a black book of buyers is largely gone, replaced with the best agents growing and cultivating databases of customers who they nurture…not to mention of course the major property portals ‘levelling the playing field’ of buyer access somewhat, although that’s not especially new.  

A big one is social media – larger companies will have (for better or worse) stricter social media policies in place, often making it harder for individual agents to create and cultivate their personal brand online. We all know how important this is to generating business in today’s age, and smaller/boutique/independent companies are less restricted in their online creativity and personality. 

Its easy to say the corporate’s higher level of control is a mistake, but it has to be balanced. You may recall how one major brand had a reputational problem on their hands after an employee was accused of posting a racist comment on Twitter during the Euro 2021 final, the police were involved and the employee was sacked… the bigger the company the more brand risk is at stake, and the more team members there are who could potentially make a grave mistake like this one. 

Smaller organisations may have less financial firepower or brand awareness, but they can take decisions quickly and be agile. Decisions that would take a committee meeting or 5 (maybe you can relate, I know I can!) can be taken that morning and implemented that afternoon (thankfully, again I can relate!). Some work, some don’t – we learn and move on, and usually no-one’s neck is on the chopping block if it was wrong, but we celebrate when we get it right and continue to innovate more rapidly because of this approach.

For example, the rate of change even in the subject of videography alone is huge. I met with Matt Strafford of Dream Home Films who we work with a lot, he explained they are increasing their provision of social media orientated content alongside long-form videography because that’s increasingly what vendors and agents want. 

Its unfair to tarnish all large agents with the same brush, but corporate agencies tend to work in a structure where there are valuer and negotiator roles and these are separate, i.e., the agent a vendor meets at a Market Appraisal may not be the person they liaise with throughout. 

Especially in the premium market this one-point-of-contact is highly sought after, and a trusted advisor the client engages with from ‘cradle to grave’ is a significant draw, rather than being handed off to someone they haven’t met and may not trust similarly.

There are a multitude of reasons for this shifting landscape, I’ve barely scratched the surface here and I’d genuinely love to know your thoughts so please let me know on socials. 

Either way, for anyone considering pushing into the premium market, this huge change shows it absolutely CAN be done, the Davids can beat the Goliaths and erode their top-dog status. 

And this is happening now – more agents are taking more instructions away from the biggest names in the industry, so you can (and I would say SHOULD) do so as well – it is so, so lucrative (I’d be happy to show you how lucrative it is in your market, just let know).

One of the most common misconceptions agents bring up when we chat about getting into the premium market is how to compete against the biggest ‘household names’ in that space. 

I explain that more often than not, in my experience these actually aren’t the competitors to worry so much about. 

Much harder to ‘unstick’ are the local independent agents, especially if they are particularly well established in their community. 

So as far as their strategy goes (and this is my personal favourite), I urge them to take the best of both worlds. 

Keep your independence, and combine forces with others around the country, all focused on their own markets, and benefit from combined size and scale and buying power and brand presence and national advertising and PR and collaboration and shared data and referrals and on and on…

Which is, if you’ll excuse the shameless plug, exactly what By Design is.

Either way, the premium market is an incredibly exciting, changing, accessible, and lucrative opportunity that is opening up in front of our eyes. 

If you don’t take your share of the premium homes market around you, someone else just might! 

David Lindley, CEO of By Design.

Chris Watkin Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/christopherwatkin_why-are-the-largest-posh-estate-agency-activity-7276639564360814592-0Msc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop