Do EA businesses in the UK earn the most?
The UK estate agency sector is the largest in Europe in terms of total market revenue, but just ranks sixth when it comes to estate agency revenue per business, research from estate agent network eXp UK has shown.
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.
The UK leads in overall revenue, beating all other nations by quite a distance with agents generating an estimated annual total revenue of £13.3 billion. In Germany, agents generate £11.6 billion a year; in France, £8.6 billion; in Spain, £5.4 billion; and in Belgium, agent revenue totals £4.7 billion.
However, despite the UK sitting on top when it comes to total agency revenue, it only ranks sixth when it comes to revenue per business due to the large number of businesses in the country.
Industry data sourced from IbisWorld showed that the UK has 27,965 estate agency businesses, just behind France (52,815), Spain (37,160), Germany (36,702), and Italy (33,716) in the list of EU nations with the greatest number of agencies in operation. For UK agents, this means each individual business generates an estimated revenue of £476,392.
By comparison, Denmark – where the total agency revenue of £1.8 billion is significantly less than the UK – only has 1,407 businesses. This means each agency generates an annual revenue of £1.3 million, which is more than any other EU nation.
The UK is also outperformed in terms of average revenue per business by Finland (£699,681), Austria (£627,269), Luxembourg (£592,184), and Sweden (£478,783).
“Estate agency continues to be a hugely profitable endeavour in the UK, generating by far the highest revenue of all EU nations,” Adam Day, head of eXp UK, commented. “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.”
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