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Housesimple uses mortgage broker referral fees to ditch estate agency charges
Estate agent Housesimple will no longer charge a fee or commission to sell properties, relying instead on referral fees received from brokers to cover its costs.
The firm said that after successful trials in Yorkshire and the North West it was going to make the change in business model permanent and start rolling it out across the country.
“Rather than charging commission or fees for selling homes, Housesimple earns referral fees from no-obligation selected services provided to sellers and buyers such as mortgage, conveyancing and insurance advice,” it said.
It reported a five-fold increase in property listings within six months of starting the trial and pledged there would be no change in the service offered as it began to widen the use of this approach.
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Housesimple chief executive officer Sam Mitchell said: “Like most estate agents, we are generating revenue from ancillary services, but as we don’t have expensive branches and we use technology to make us more efficient, we can pass on these savings to our customers by not charging fees to sellers or buyers.
“Our goal is to offer our free service nationwide, but we’re not extending our service to the whole of the UK in one go because we think demand will initially exceed our ability to service all our customers.
“We are therefore building up our coverage in Yorkshire and the North West and will start to roll-out to other towns and cities in the coming months,” he added.