Do estate agents still need a physical high street presence?
April 15th, 2021
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Why I Don’t Need A High Street Office\r\n \r\n
\r\nThe last 12 months have seen the way we buy homes shift further to being a digital process rather than a physical one. And with half of homebuyers revealing that they never visit their estate agent’s office – is there any need for a high street office?\r\n\r\nNew research from property platform, WiggyWam, has highlighted that although some customers still want their estate agents to have a physical location, many homebuyers aren’t bothered either way.\r\n\r\nIn fact, 53% state that, throughout their most recent purchasing journey, they did not step inside their estate agent’s branch or office at all. 38% state that they had cause to visit a branch once or twice, while just 9% visited often’.\r\n\r\nHere are some more interesting stats for you. 6% of homebuyers say they discovered the home they eventually bought via the window of an estate agent branch, and 5% discovered it via a For Sale board. This leaves 70% finding their future homes online and 18% responding with ‘other’. Examples of the latter will be word of mouth, auction, and buying directly from the seller.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nOne particularly striking element of WiggyWam’s research tells that 75% of homebuyers, when thinking about eventually selling to fund onward purchases, would happily get rid of physical branches if it meant agents had fewer overheads to cover and could, therefore, reduce their fees.\r\n\r\nSilas J. Lees MRICS, WiggyWam CEO, says: “Because of lockdown, many agents have been operating an appointment-only system, so it is no surprise that many recent buyers have not made much use of the branch.\r\n\r\n“However, we also know that the entire high street retail sector was struggling before Covid and has been truly battered since. Even the biggest names in retail are retreating from physical operations.\r\n