Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Property Industry Eye. Read the original article for full details.
Self-Employed Agents Lead on Sales Success and Speed
Self-employed estate agents are outperforming traditional high street agencies across several key sales metrics, according to new analysis from TwentyEA. The research shows that self-employed agents have a higher sales success rate, faster transaction completions, and lower fall-through rates, despite holding a small share of the overall market.
TwentyEA’s analysis found that self-employed agents achieved a sales success rate of 65%, compared to 53% for traditional agencies. Transactions handled by self-employed agents completed around 10 days faster on average, and these agents also secured marginally higher achieved sale prices. Fall-through rates were lower among self-employed agents at 21%, compared to 24% for traditional firms.
Despite these performance advantages, self-employed agents currently represent just 2.8% of the UK estate agency market, while traditional agencies account for 97%. However, the self-employed sector is expanding rapidly, with market share rising to 2.8% in Q1 2026, an annual growth of 24.8% compared to the previous year. Much of this growth is attributed to self-employed brokerage models such as eXp UK.
Growth Across Price Bands and Regions
TwentyEA’s report, “What’s Behind the Success of the Self-Employed Model?”, highlights that self-employed agents have increased their market share across all major price brackets. In the £350,000 to £1 million category, market share rose from 2.3% to 3.0%, while the £1 million-plus sector saw the fastest growth, climbing from 1.6% to 2.3%—an annual increase of 42.8%. Growth in lower price bands was more modest but still positive, with the sub-£200,000 sector increasing from 2.0% to 2.1%, and the £200,000 to £350,000 range rising from 2.4% to 3.1%.
There are now around 2,000 self-employed estate agents operating in the UK, with approximately half working in partnership with eXp. Regionally, Wales has one of the highest concentrations of self-employed agents, accounting for around 4% of the market. Wales and the North East recorded the strongest annual growth, while Scotland was the only region to see a decline in self-employed market share.
The findings come as the sector faces ongoing changes driven by rising costs, recruitment challenges, and evolving consumer expectations, prompting further debate about the future of estate agency models.
Source: Property Industry Eye