"Heightened activity, along with stable house price growth, improving mortgage affordability, and greater demand for estate agency expertise, are all helping to drive a continued increase in the number of agents operating within the market"
- Adam Day - eXp UK
Estate agency competition across the UK has grown sharply in recent years, with new figures showing the number of active businesses has increased by 24% since 2017 — a trend that looks set to continue.
An analysis of Office for National Statistics data by eXp UK found that there were 25,155 estate agency businesses operating across the UK in 2024. This marks a rise of nearly a quarter compared with 2017, with an average of 691 new agencies launching each year over the seven-year period.
The North East has seen the sharpest increase in agency numbers, with a 34% rise since 2017. The North West follows closely at 30%, while Scotland, London, and Yorkshire and the Humber have all recorded increases of 28% or more. Every UK region has experienced growth in the number of estate agencies over this period.
Looking ahead, eXp UK predicts further expansion. The company expects a 4% increase in the total number of estate agencies by the end of 2025, followed by a further 3% growth in 2026, which would push the total close to 27,000.
“We’ve seen market conditions improve notably in the last year or so,” said Adam Day, head of eXp UK & Europe. “This heightened activity, along with stable house price growth, improving mortgage affordability, and greater demand for estate agency expertise, are all helping to drive a continued increase in the number of agents operating within the market.”
He added, “Of course, a greater degree of competition can prove problematic when it comes to profit margins, retaining talent and maintaining market position and so whilst a buoyant market is great news for the nation’s agents, they can’t afford to rest on their laurels.”
Commenting on how agents are responding to the shift, Day noted, “It’s no surprise that, given this continued competition, we’ve seen so many of the nation’s top agents join the eXp ranks, as the ability to build their own brand and business not only gives them full autonomy on how they operate, but it also allows them to dramatically increase their earnings.”
He concluded, “For those interested in following suit, we have a range of dedicated workshops open to all at our Birmingham conference next week, focussed on growing and scaling your business, brand, team, listings and leads to ensure that our agents can hit the ground running in an increasingly congested sector."
