The Obstacle is the Way...

Somehow, the biggest challenge in the premium market is simultaneously the biggest opportunity. 

Speaking to as many estate agents as I do (and for my sins, I speak to a lot!) the biggest obstacle to taking advantage of the premium market is, almost always, the same. 

It isn’t the value of the premium market (that’s clear enough, we demonstrate how valuable it is with in depth stats). 

It isn’t the competition being too strong, because in reality, it often isn’t (although not always the case, again, looking at the stats in details for a given area we can see agents performance against market averages), but often the anecdotes I am told are enough! 

It isn’t the investment capital required to attack the premium market. Or, at least, I’m told that’s the case very rarely – and to be fair, it is not as expensive as it might be assumed to be. 

No, 9 times out of 10, the reason (estate agencies, rather than individuals) ‘opt-out’ of the premium market is down to a lack of people. Or specifically, the right people, in their opinion, to do the job well. 

Fair enough, and perhaps nothing too surprising there you could argue. ‘Hiring and retaining talent’ was the third biggest concern for agents in the Voice of the Agent Survey 2025 (in silver place was ‘Time-pressure’, which is perhaps one and the same as personnel! And for what its worth, ‘Finding new vendors’ was the biggest challenge, but isn’t that just the job? Or a big part of it at least). So its a common concern. 

I said in the click-bait headline that it is also the biggest opportunity, especially in the premium market. And personnel, specifically, self-employed personnel, is by far and away the biggest, in my opinion at least. 

As your friend and mine, Marcus Aurelius, once said: ‘The obstacle is the way’. 

In my career, and of all the agents I have spoken to, I have yet to see a more lucrative business model (in every sense of the word) than operating a successful agency in the premium market, with a team of self-employed agents working alongside you. 

There are four good reasons this is the case; income, costs, competition for agents and asset value.

It is staggeringly good. Firstly in terms of income: higher value properties multiplied by higher value fees, strong demand and ‘churn’ as long as you don’t focus too much on the prime/super prime. 

And then in terms of cost, aside from recruitment costs, perhaps some initial support and marketing investment it is, by definition, relatively minimal, due to the nature of self employed agents and not being a salaried role (even more pertinent with the NI increases and so on).

On top of that, it is (relatively) uncontested – TwentyEA reported that the market share of self employed agents in the £1m+ market is up 194% since 2019. Big numbers, but dwarfed by the same increase in the general market, which is well in excess of 500% over the same time period. 

So the ‘gap’ in the market is there! And no, I have no idea why this difference is so stark… To me, if anything it makes MORE sense for self-employed agents to operate in the premium market than the volume market (lower quantities, higher service level expectations, etc). 

Sales Estate Agencies, whether we like it or not (and we don’t) typically have very little asset value. I.e., they are predominantly sold for a percentage of their pipeline and some stock on market, often on an ‘ongoing’ basis as opposed to a lump sum. 

At a recent industry event, Adam J Walker (who sells agencies) confirmed what I had suspected – it is a totally different story for a business that has its own team of self employed agents, they are valued differently and have significantly more ‘asset value’ when you come to sell. 

All these reasons are why, here at By Design, we have just expanded the team with the addition of Paul Quintanilla (he goes by Paul John on LinkedIn if you want to look him up as its tough to spell!). 

Paul is, perhaps, the best in the industry at hiring premium self employed agents; recruiting 60 in 2024 alone… his role is firstly to help By Design licensees recruit their own self employed agents (game changing, for all the reasons I mention above), and also to work with me, to grow the network of By Design licence holders. 

We are often mistaken for a self-employed brokerage…we’re not, but we deliver our licence holders everything they need to own their own.

If any of that is interesting, just get in touch and I’d be happy to explain how it works. 

And if not, do give some consideration to the premium & self-employed space, its is hugely interesting. 

Or at least, its what I find interesting…anyway, back to finding an actual hobby, I’ll report back on that next month, but don’t hold your breath.

David Lindley, By Design.