Purplebricks Reviews: How to Weigh It Up

Purplebricks is the UK's best-known online (hybrid) estate agent — not a cash buyer. Since being bought by rival Strike for £1 in 2023, it sells homes on the open market for a headline price of "free" (£0), making its money instead from buyer services such as mortgage and conveyancing referrals, with paid upgrade packages (around £999–£1,499) for premium marketing and hosted viewings. It can save you thousands in commission if it sells your home, but it cannot guarantee a sale or a fast completion. If you need certainty and speed, a regulated cash buyer is the right tool — Purplebricks is not.

• £0headline "free" listing package
• £1price Strike paid for Purplebricks (2023)
• 16–24 wksopen-market sale time (same as any agent)
• ~1 in 4UK sales that fall through

What is Purplebricks, in plain English?

Purplebricks is an online — or "hybrid" — estate agent. It does the core job any agent does: it values your home, lists it on the major portals buyers actually search (Rightmove and Zoopla), handles enquiries, and negotiates offers. What made Purplebricks famous a decade ago was ditching the traditional percentage commission in favour of a fixed fee, and it has since gone a step further to a "sell for free" headline.

The crucial thing to understand in 2026 is that the Purplebricks you may remember is, under the bonnet, now Strike. In May 2023, after years of losses and a collapsing share price, Purplebricks was bought by its rival Strike for a nominal £1. The brand, logo and website live on, but the business model and operations are Strike's — which is why the company shifted to selling homes "for free", matching Strike's approach.

And here is the point every seller researching "Purplebricks reviews" needs to hear clearly: Purplebricks is not a cash house-buying company. It does not make you an offer, it does not own the money, and it cannot promise your sale will complete. It markets your home to ordinary buyers on the open market. If you actually need a guaranteed, fast, chain-free sale, you are researching the wrong category of company — and we set out the genuine alternative further down.

How "free" actually works — and how Purplebricks makes money

A "free" estate agent sounds too good to be true, so it pays to understand the economics. With the £0 package you genuinely do not pay Purplebricks a listing fee or commission to sell your home. The company instead earns its money from buyer-facing and add-on services: referral fees when buyers (or you) take a mortgage through its broker partners, conveyancing referrals, and the optional paid upgrade packages sellers choose for extra marketing.

Purplebricks has been explicit that it makes more money from buyers than from home sellers, largely through those mortgage and conveyancing arrangements. None of that is hidden or improper in itself — but it does explain the commercial pressure to steer customers towards in-house services, which is exactly the behaviour a July 2025 BBC Panorama investigation put under scrutiny when it examined high-pressure upselling and conveyancing referrals across parts of the online-agent sector, Purplebricks included.

The practical lesson for you as a seller: treat the "free" listing as genuinely free, but shop around independently for your mortgage and conveyancing rather than defaulting to the referred provider. You are never obliged to use them, and comparing quotes can save you far more than the headline fee.

Purplebricks packages and fees in 2026

Prices and package names change, so confirm the current figures on Purplebricks' own site before committing. As a 2026 snapshot, the structure has three tiers:

Two details matter. First, on the Free and Boost tiers you generally host your own viewings — only Full House includes accompanied viewings. Second, where a paid package is payable up front or via a deferred-payment arrangement, you can end up owing the fee whether or not your home sells. Always read exactly when and how a fee becomes due before you sign.

A worked example: Purplebricks vs the high street vs a cash sale

Take a typical 2026 home worth £270,000 on the open market — close to the average UK house price reported by HM Land Registry. Here is how the routes compare:

The headline saving versus a high-street agent is real — potentially £4,000 or more in commission on this example. But notice that Purplebricks and a cash buyer answer completely different questions. Purplebricks can get you (close to) full market price while saving commission if your home sells, but it asks for the same 16–24 weeks of patience and carries the same risk that the sale collapses — roughly one in four UK sales fall through before completion. A cash buyer trades a 15–25% discount for certainty and a 7–28 day completion. Neither is universally "better"; they suit different circumstances.

• Open-market price via Purplebricks ~100%
• High-street agent (net) ~98.5%
• Genuine cash buyer 75–85%

Purplebricks reviews: what customers actually say

Purplebricks has one of the largest review footprints of any UK estate agent — well over a hundred thousand reviews on Trustpilot alone. Reading them, a consistent pattern emerges that is more useful than any single star rating:

• The local agents are frequently praised. A large share of positive reviews single out an individual Local Property Expert for being responsive, friendly and helpful during the marketing and viewing stage.
• The criticism clusters after payment. Independent analyses of the reviews have noted that sentiment often turns negative after the customer has paid — around sales progression, chasing, and the experience once the early enthusiasm fades. In other words, the weak point tends to be the back half of the journey, not the front.
• Upselling concerns. The 2025 BBC Panorama coverage echoed a theme in some reviews: pressure to take referred mortgage and conveyancing services. Being aware of this lets you push back and compare independently.

Who Purplebricks suits — and who it does not

An honest assessment of fit beats a sales pitch. Purplebricks works well for some sellers and poorly for others.

Purplebricks is likely to suit you if: you want to avoid four-figure high-street commission; your property is straightforward and mortgageable in an area with steady buyer demand; you are comfortable hosting your own viewings (on the Free/Boost tiers) and doing some chasing; you will shop around independently for mortgage and conveyancing; and you are not in a rush, so the normal 16–24 week open-market timeline is fine.

Purplebricks is probably not right if: you need a guaranteed, fast, certain sale — that is a job for a cash buyer, not any agent; your property is hard to sell or hard to mortgage (structural issues, short lease, subsidence, or a property suited to a below-market-value cash route); you want a fully hands-on, managed local service and value a physical office; or you are dealing with a sensitive, time-critical situation — a fast sale to stop repossession, divorce, probate or relocation — where speed and certainty matter more than the last few percent of price.

The crucial distinction: a "free" agent is not a fast or guaranteed sale

This is where sellers most often go wrong. People searching for "sell my house fast" sometimes sign up with Purplebricks because it is free and the brand is familiar. But "free" does not mean fast, and it does not mean certain. With Purplebricks — or 99home, Yopa, Strike or any portal-lister — you are still:

• Waiting for a buyer to find your listing and book a viewing.
• Waiting for that buyer to secure a mortgage and survey.
• Exposed to the chain — if your buyer's own sale or purchase collapses, yours can too.
• Exposed to the roughly 1-in-4 fall-through rate on open-market sales.

If certainty and speed are your priority, the honest answer is a different product entirely: a genuine cash house buyer. A regulated cash buyer purchases with its own funds, typically completes in 7 to 28 days, removes the chain and often covers your legal fees — but pays 75–85% of market value. Be wary of any "cash buyer" quoting above roughly 82%: an unrealistically high opening figure is a classic tactic to tie you in before the price is quietly renegotiated down before completion.

How to verify Purplebricks — or any agent or buyer — before you sign

A few minutes of checking protects you whichever route you take:

• Redress scheme membership. Every UK estate agent must belong to a government-approved redress scheme — The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme. Confirm membership before you commit; it is your route to an independent complaint if things go wrong.
• Read the fee terms. Establish exactly what the Free tier includes, what each paid package adds, when any fee becomes payable, and whether you owe it if the home does not sell.
• Decline tied add-ons by default. Compare mortgage and conveyancing quotes independently; never assume the referred provider is the cheapest or best.
• Get an independent valuation. Cross-check the agent's figure using our how much is my house worth? guide and sold prices on the portals — overpricing is the number-one cause of a slow sale.
• If a cash buyer is involved, verify the money. Ask for proof of funds, check National Association of Property Buyers (NAPB) and Property Ombudsman membership, and never pay an upfront fee to a cash-buying company — genuine ones do not charge sellers.

Purplebricks vs the alternatives

For a wider view, compare the best house-buying companies, browse the figures behind the market on our UK property selling statistics page, and keep our plain-English property jargon explainer handy if any terms are unfamiliar.

How Purplebricks compares to other online agents

Purplebricks remains the most recognisable name in the online-agent space, but it is no longer alone. Strike (its current owner) pioneered the free-listing model. Yopa offers a fixed fee with a local-agent feel and deferred-payment options. 99home competes on a very low entry price with a strong Trustpilot score. The differences between them all come down to price, packaging and how much support you get — because, fundamentally, they are the same kind of business: portal-listing agents, not buyers.

That means choosing between Purplebricks and its rivals is a decision about how you want to pay and how much you are willing to do yourself, not a decision about how fast or how certain your sale will be. The open market and the chain govern those, regardless of which online agent's logo is on your listing.

Tips to get the best result from Purplebricks

• Price realistically from day one. The biggest driver of a slow sale is an over-ambitious asking price. A listing that lingers goes stale; cross-check sold prices before you set it.
• Invest in great photos. Your portal photos are your shop window. If your tier doesn't include professional photography, the upgrade is usually the cheapest way to win more viewings.
• Be responsive. On the Free and Boost tiers, buyers contact you to arrange viewings. Slow replies lose viewings — treat the first fortnight like a part-time job.
• Keep mortgage and conveyancing separate. Compare independent quotes rather than taking the referred provider; this is where a "free" agent's economics work against you if you are not careful.
• Set a deadline and a plan B. Decide up front how long you will give the open-market route before you consider a cash sale. Drifting for months with no offers is the costliest mistake of all.

Where Ready Steady Sell fits in

Ready Steady Sell is an independent service. We are free for sellers to use and are paid by the vetted buyers in our network rather than by you — so our guides aim to tell you the truth about each route, including when an online agent like Purplebricks is a smart, money-saving choice and when it is not. Our founder, Lisa Hayes, has spent years cutting through the jargon and the sales tactics in this market. If it would help, we can put a genuine cash offer side by side with the open-market route so you can see the real numbers for your own property. Dig into the underlying figures any time on our industry data pages.

The rise and fall — and survival — of Purplebricks

Understanding Purplebricks' story helps you read its reviews in context. Founded in 2014, Purplebricks grew explosively, floated on the stock market, and at its peak was valued in the hundreds of millions of pounds as the poster child for "disrupting" the traditional estate agent. It expanded aggressively into the United States, Canada and Australia. But the model proved hard to make profitable: overseas ventures were wound down at heavy cost, the share price collapsed, and a series of leadership changes followed.

By 2023 the company was loss-making and effectively up for sale. In May 2023 its smaller rival Strike acquired the business for a nominal £1, taking on its operations and brand. That is why a 2026 review of "Purplebricks" is really a review of a Strike-run operation wearing the Purplebricks badge — and why the pricing pivoted to the free-listing model. The brand endures because it is still one of the most searched-for names in UK property, but the company behind it is materially different from the high-flying disruptor of the late 2010s. None of this makes Purplebricks a bad choice today; it simply means you should judge it on how it operates now, not on its old reputation in either direction.

Common Purplebricks complaints — and how to sidestep them

Across the review platforms, a handful of complaints recur. Knowing them in advance lets you avoid most of them:

• "It went quiet after I paid." Sales progression is the stage most often criticised. Counter it by agreeing clear communication expectations up front and chasing your buyer's solicitor proactively rather than waiting.
• "I felt pushed towards their mortgage/conveyancing." Remember you are never obliged to use referred services. Get at least two independent quotes for each.
• "My home didn't sell and I'd still paid." This applies to paid or deferred-payment tiers, not the Free package. Check exactly when a fee is due before you choose a tier.
• "Viewings were a hassle to arrange myself." On Free and Boost you host your own viewings. If that doesn't suit you, either budget for Full House or reconsider whether an online agent is right for you at all.

Frequently asked questions

Is Purplebricks still trading in 2026?

Yes. Purplebricks continues to operate, but since 2023 it has been owned and run by Strike, which bought it for a nominal £1. The brand and website remain, while the business model — including selling homes "for free" — reflects Strike's approach.

Is Purplebricks really free?

The basic listing package is genuinely £0 — no commission to sell your home. The company earns instead from buyer-side services such as mortgage and conveyancing referrals, plus optional paid upgrade packages (around £999–£1,499). Treat the listing as free, but compare any add-on services independently.

Does Purplebricks buy houses for cash?

No. Purplebricks is an estate agent that markets your home to ordinary buyers on the open market; it does not buy properties itself. For a guaranteed cash purchase you need a regulated cash house buyer instead.

Will I get the same price as with a high-street agent?

Potentially yes — you are selling on the same portals to the same buyers. The risk is that on the cheaper tiers you handle your own viewings and negotiation, and a less experienced negotiator can leave money on the table. The headline saving is on fees, not necessarily on the final sale price.

What was the BBC Panorama investigation about?

In July 2025, a BBC Panorama programme examined high-pressure sales tactics in parts of the estate-agency sector, including incentives to upsell services such as conveyancing referrals. The takeaway for sellers is simple: you are never obliged to use an agent's referred mortgage or conveyancing provider — always compare independently.

Is a fast cash sale ever the better option?

Sometimes, yes. If you face repossession, a broken chain, divorce, an unmanageable inherited property or a fast relocation, the certainty and 7–28 day speed of a genuine cash buyer can be worth more than the extra 15–25% you might eventually achieve on the open market — especially once you account for months of mortgage payments, bills and the one-in-four chance of a fall-through. For most sellers in no hurry, an agent (online or high street) wins on price. The right answer depends entirely on your circumstances.