Revealed: the postcodes where agents compete hardest

If you step out and take the local perspective it’s usually easy to spot the areas where competition between agents is fierce. The tell-tale signs include a local high street crowded with branches or nearby roads peppered – at least during the boom years – with sale and rental boards.

But on a national level, do agents fight tooth and nail for their slice of the most lucrative and active markets?

After weeks of investigation by the TDPG Research team we can now reveal the Top 20 most competitive housing markets in the UK.  At the head of the list is London’s SW3 (Chelsea, Brompton and parts of Knightsbridge). This is where, at the moment, 720 properties are for sale and 75 agents battle it out to sell or let some of the world’s most expensive and desirable homes.

The No.2 is another upmarket London area, W8 (Kensington and Holland Park), where 611 properties are for sale and 53 agents are in competition. But not all the ‘hot’ markets are in central London – just six out of the top 20 are the usual, multi-million-pound property suspects.

The third most competitive is GL50 (Cheltenham), followed by EX1 (Exeter), SW7 (South Kensington, London), NG1 (Nottingham), DE1 (Derby) and KT11 (Cobham, Surrey).

“Postcodes that estate agents compete in the most fiercely are usually densely populated and in either central urban or highly desirable rural or suburban locations,” says Andrew Smith, TDPG’s Research Director. “This is true regardless of where you look and this gives our list such a wide geographical reach from Corby to Cobham.”

The research examined postcodes containing more than 6,000 households and related this with the number of agents operating locally and the level of sales. So, for example, in BS8 (Bristol) there is one agent for every 387 households – placing the area at No.17. But SW3, by comparison, has an agent for every 194 households.

The full list

1st	SW3	London	11th	M3	Manchester / Salford
2nd	W8	London	12th	TW9	Richmond
3rd	GL50	Cheltenham	13th	NW3	London
4th	EX1	Exeter	14th	SW13	London
5th	SW7	London	15th	KT13	Weybridge
6th	NG1	Nottingham	16th	TW3	Hounslow
7th	DE1	Derby	17th	BS8	Bristol
8th	KT11	Cobham	18th	GU1	Guildford
9th	W11	London	19th	RH4	Dorking
10th	KT10	Esher	20th	TN13	Sevenoaks