This omission was noted by popular share investing website The Motley Fool with British analyst GA Chester writing that previously, various figures Purplebricks gave made it possible to at least estimate the number. "My calculations of the average sale price suggested that either the company was cornering the market in trailer park homes sales or that a rather large proportion of instructions weren't being converted to completions," Mr Chester wrote. "Obviously, if you're charging a fixed fee but fail to complete the sale in too many cases, you're not going to have a sustainable business in the longer term," he added. Purplebricks' Australian website shows its agents have sold 2247 homes since September 2016 out of total listings of 3495. This suggests a clearance rate of 70-75 per cent, if recent listings are excluded. Also a concern is that while Purplebricks has continued to ramp up its British advertising spending, UK revenue growth has halved in the past two years from 154 per cent in the first of 2016-17 to 77 per cent in the second half of 2017-18. "For me, this trend appears ominous for the market's future top and bottom-line growth expectations," Mr Chester said. Despite these issues, Neil Woodford, Britain's most high-profile fund manager, remains a strong backer of Purplebricks, with his Woodford Investment Management Ltd retaining a 27 per cent stake having bought into the float. However, investors are clearly nervous – the Purplebricks share price dropped 6 per cent in September when it was briefly, incorrectly reported that Woodford had reduced its stake to just 2.99 per cent. Old Mutual is another backing Purplebricks – the insurance and banking group recently increased its stake in the company to 12.6 per cent from 11.1 per cent. In its latest interim results released in mid-December, Purplebricks reported that total group revenue more than doubled to £46.8 million with its British business posting a healthy £3.2 million operating profit. However, losses at its Australian business more than doubled to £5.1 million after it spent £5.7 million on marketing the brand locally. Purplebricks upgraded its UK revenue guidance 5 per cent to £84 million as part of its interim results. The company said it was on course to achieve full-year revenue guidance of £12 million ($20.8 million) in Australia. Chief executive and co-founder Michael Bruce said the company's Australian business was "on track" and performing ahead of expectations. "Our progress in Australia has been exciting and encouraging. Our market share in Australia is greater than our market share was in the UK at the same time in its evolution," Mr Bruce said. The Australian Financial Review has reported on a few notable successes by Purplebricks estate agents, including veteran property executive Bryce Mitchelson, the managing director of $500 million childcare trust Arena REIT selling a three-bedroom Edwardian home in Elsternwick for more than $1.7 million after just two weeks with Purplebricks and saving an estimated $38,000 in commission fees. In another high-profile result, Purplebricks saved property developer David Fam more than $61,000 on the $3.1 million sale of his Sutherland Shire mansion. However, the Financial Review has also highlighted what happens when Purplebricks does not achieve a result, leaving a customer with a big bill and a house that is still for sale. This was the case for Sydney woman Kerryn Lehmann who ended up owing Purplebricks $12,000 when her four-bedroom riverfront home in Como in the Sutherland Shire failed to sell.
UK hybrid estate agency Purplebricks revealed a £3.2m ($4.3m) operating profit in its mid-December interim results, and has revised up its revenue guidance by 5% to £84m. The company said it had seen an increase of more than 50% on the number of homes sold since last year, with sales rising from 92,000 units at the end of 2016 to 136,000 this year. The firm's Australian arm was on target to achieve its full-year revenue guidance of £12m, despite incurring losses of £5.1m, the results showed.