A Complete Guide on Purplebricks
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Content Written By: Jessica Buckley - Last Updated: 01/05/2025
Purplebricks is one of those brands you’ll have seen all over the telly and, if you’re trying to sell your house, probably online, too. It’s grown to become one of the most recognisable estate agent brands in the housing market, so it’s no surprise you’re here to find out more.
This article will run you through how Purplebricks compares to other online property selling options, plus its customer reviews and pros and cons, so you can make a more informed decision about selling your own house.
We know you’ll want to get your sale done as quickly as possible, so let’s dive right in.
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What is Purplebricks?
Purplebricks is an online estate agent that aims to remove the stress and some of the fees from the selling process for homeowners in the UK. Its operating model is based on offering a free valuation service, ‘Pay Upfront’ and ‘Pay on Completion’ packages and putting an expert estate agent by your side at every step. You can add extra selling services to suit your needs, depending on how much support you want.
A local property expert will still visit your house on behalf of Purplebricks to value it, photograph it and map out its floorplan—after which it will be listed on the likes of Rightmove, Zoopla and other property portals.
Its app offers you a straightforward way to manage the selling process with support available as and when you need it.
How does Purplebricks work?
Purplebricks has three main selling packages available for different types of sellers: Free, Boost and Full House. It can sell your house for free, with valuations and listings included and managed within the app, and extras like hosted viewings and drone photography available to everyone.
It explicitly says it makes “more money from potential buyers than [...] home sellers” and does so via the referral fees it earns from the mortgage deal-finding support and conveyancing services it offers them.
Purplebricks used to offer a money-back guarantee that granted sellers a refund if their properties had not sold or received an offer of at least 90% of the asking price within 10 months, but this scheme was scrapped in July 2022.
How much does Purplebricks cost?
As of May 2025, Purplebricks offers three main seller packages:
Free: £0, including valuation, listing, negotiation and support
Boost: £999, including improved media, Premium Rightmove listing and expert mortgage advice
Full House: £1,499, including hosted viewings and mortgage advice
How long does a Purplebricks sale take?
As with every estate agent, whether online or offline, it’s difficult to predict how long a sale will take. Everything from location to condition can affect the process—Purplebricks currently states that “the average time from when a property first goes up for sale to when an offer is accepted is around 5 months,” so opting for the open market can mean a long wait for some sellers.
If you’re in need of a quick sale, you can sell to a cash buyer like The Property Buying Company, which could put the money in your bank within days. Enter your postcode here to get started:
Purplebricks pros and cons
Before we get into the reviews, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using Purplebricks as your online estate agent:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fees: Purplebricks can save you thousands in fees. When you sell through an estate agent, you have to pay a commission—when compared to the fixed fee that you pay Purplebricks, this works out better in the long run. | Viewings: You have to pay more for hosted viewings with Purplebricks, which isn’t ideal if you’re strapped for both cash and time, since you’ll need to organise around local experts’ calendars, too. |
| User experience: It’s a relaxed, user-friendly approach to property selling with Purplebricks—through the online portal, you can manage everything from offers to bookings, so it’s all in your hands. | No ‘No Sale, No Fee’ option: The lack of a ‘no sale, no fee’ option has changed things for sellers on Purplebricks. You can either pay when you sign up or upon completion and you can no longer request a refund if your house doesn’t sell. |
| Autonomy: You get the freedom of doing viewings on your own or, through optional extras, with the help of one of the local property experts. This means you can handle everything yourself if you want to keep control. | Extras: If you want extras, such as improved marketing or a local property viewer to conduct viewings for you, it will cost you. You’ll also need to pay if you decide to use your own conveyancers. |
| Local property experts: While Purplebricks advertises itself as having local property experts ready to assist you in selling your home, they often cover a broad area of 30-40 miles. This means that their local knowledge will be fairly limited. |
Purplebricks reviews: What do real customers think?
Genuine customer reviews are a great way to judge whether or not a company is the right fit for you—selling your house online is no exception.
At the time of writing, Purplebricks has a rating of 3.9 out of 5 on Trustpilot from almost 136,000 reviews. As you might expect, they range from 1 star to 5 stars with varying degrees of hostility and happiness.
One recent customer cites “appalling customer service right from the off,” while another threatens to involve The Property Ombudsman.
On the other side of the coin, users report “very professional and good services” and “polite, understanding” local estate agents that, on the whole, delivered a 5-star service. Currently, 82% of Purplebricks’ reviews on Trustpilot have awarded the service 5 stars.
The same old adage goes for any kind of purchase in the modern age—it pays to do your research and properly dig into the companies that offer the services you’re after—but there are few sales for which this rings truer than that of your house.
To investigate Purplebricks further yourself, you can check out its Trustpilot reviews here.
When was Purplebricks on Watchdog?
In August 2017, several allegations of misleading advertising landed Purplebricks on the BBC TV show, Watchdog. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) had already banned several of the claims that Purplebricks has made over the years.
There is an interview on the programme with Michael Bruce, one of the co-founders of the company, who apologises “to anyone who doesn’t get 100% of the service that they require from Purplebricks” and goes on to say his company is one of the most positively reviewed estate agents online. You can watch the clip here.
Comparing Purplebricks to alternative online estate agents
There are tens of thousands of estate agents in operation in the UK, which gives sellers and buyers plenty of choice. We’ve taken a look at how Purplebricks compares to other key players as far as the online market goes here—namely, Emoov and Yopa.
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In 2023, Purplebricks was acquired by its rival, Strike, despite both businesses struggling and reporting huge losses—the former’s market share sank by 40% in a year, while the latter’s saw a drop of 30% in the same period.
Strike’s CEO, Sam Mitchell, said of the merger: “The combined strengths presents a compelling opportunity for the business to significantly disrupt the real estate sector.
“Leveraging Purplebricks’ widespread brand awareness alongside Strike’s distinct approach to the real estate market, the company believes it is uniquely positioned to offer a strong value proposition.”
However, according to Property Industry Eye, the market share of online estate agents actually fell by 5.2% the following year in 2024, which represented a 7% drop versus 2023 and a 32% drop versus 2019.
The online market has certainly changed the way traditional estate agents approach business, with many on the high street lowering their prices to stay competitive, but their online counterparts appear to be suffering in the current climate.
Read more: Purplebricks vs high street estate agents
Purplebricks vs The Property Buying Company
The open market wait can sometimes be too long for a lot of homeowners looking to sell, which is why we offer a quicker alternative. As cash buyers, our service is all about speed and convenience—we can often buy homes within weeks, not months, so it presents a chance to get your property sold without having to wait for a mortgage-reliant buyer.
Purplebricks can be more appealing when it comes to the final sale price of your house, since you’re more likely to get closer to 100% market value via the online estate agent route. It does come with all the associated fees, of course, but if it’s important to you to get more money than to save more time, Purplebricks might be the way to go.
If you need to get the job done quickly, enter your postcode in the box below to get a free cash offer from our experts.
Edit Log
01/05/2025 - Content rewritten and updated by Jessica Buckley
01/05/2025 - Content updated in line with Editorial Guidelines (Reviewed by Mathew McCorry)
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