Real estate disruptor pulls out of US after just 2 years
Ryan Smith
other
After less than two years, a UK company that promised to disrupt the American real estate market is pulling out of the US.
Purplebricks, a real estate company that charges homeowners a flat fee whether or not the property is sold, built a successful business in the UK, but has seen its stock plummet by 75% since entering the US market in September 2017, according to a Bloomberg report.
The company’s claim to fame was that it charged homesellers a single fee — $3,200 – to list their home, regardless of the price the home was selling for.
Purplebricks said that while there is still a “significant opportunity to disrupt the US market,” it would take “substantially more management time and resources than the company is able to commit at this time.”
The news comes on the heels of a May announcement that it would scale back its US operations and exit Australia entirely.
“We have taken the difficult decision to exit our businesses in both Autralia and the US, as it is very important that we now focus our resources on the UK and Canada, where we have a strong, established presence and where there are significant opportunities to grow market share and deliver profitable growth for shareholders,” Vic Darvey, Purplebricks CEO, said in a statement.
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