Purplebricks shares are down 40%

British online real estate agent, Purplebricks has announced that both the UK and US heads are leaving the company after second downgrade

The shares of UK’s largest online estate agent, Purplebricks, have plunged 40% after the company slashed its revenue forecasts and announced the surprise departure of both its US and UK bosses.

The company blamed slower than expected growth in its fledgling US business and “headwinds” in Australia, as it said revenue for the year was unlikely to exceed £140m compared with an earlier forecast of up to £175m.

The revenue prediction had already been downgraded once, at the time of its disappointing half-year results, from £185m.

Last year’s revenues were £93.7m, which yielded an operating loss of £19.6m. The combined £45m downgrade to this year’s full-year sales forecasts is significant given that Australia and the US, the two divisions it said were struggling, only reported revenues of £12.5m combined in the first half of the year.

Shares dropped by 40% after the news but later staged a partial recovery. However they were still down 28%, at 118p, cutting the company’s market value by £140m.

PurpleBricks is an online real estate agent that helps its clients to sell, buy, and let their properties.

PurpleBricks provides a full estate agency service at a low cost because they've removed the expensive offices and fleets of cars that you see with traditional agents. Their one-off fee is payable when you instruct us but you can defer it for up to 10 months when you use their conveyancing service or until your property sells, whichever is sooner.

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