Purplebricks’ DIY model doesn’t work for us Brits

I have always said that the self-deprecating, modest, British, would rather run through the streets naked than organise the sale of their home. It is like a surgeon sending you, in the post, a scalpel, bandages and YouTube video with a good luck message for your urgent operation.

This DIY model was never going to work and cannot replace the human touch, endless nurturing, and professionalism that three-dimensional estate agency provides for clients – and charges, quite rightly, a 1.5% to 2% contingency fee for the privilege.

The homeowner should be able to ‘hire and forget’ the estate agent, who is then tasked with the job of delivering the bounty, which is invariably bloated by tax-free Capital Gain over many years of ownership.

The homeowner gets the sale and the money, and the agent its just fees, which are a fraction of what is normally charged in the US and on the continent. What’s wrong with this?

Purplebricks had a jolly good try, but I am afraid, no matter how much energy you expend, you will never stop the tide.

The lovable British nation are incorrigibly understated, which is why our prime minister lives in a small flat buried in the bowels of 10 Downing Street and is driven around in a very pedestrian Jaguar – whereas his counterparts elsewhere in the world live in palaces and swan about in the most prestigious limousine the country can (or sometimes can’t) afford.

Full marks to Purplebricks for innovation, but this model was doomed to failure.

And maybe, conventional estate agents will rise slightly higher in the hierarchy of the ‘deplorables’ as a result.

Trevor Abrahmsohn, Glentree International