Part 1 – 17th July 2026

If You Can’t Beat Them, Buy Them

Disclosure: A Personal Note

I am a shareholder in Foxtons, and Savills so I should begin by acknowledging that I have a vested interest in the both company’s future.

This article is not a recommendation to buy or sell shares, nor is it intended as financial advice. It is simply a personal exploration of a company and the wider question of value.

 

What Happens When an Estate Agent Becomes the Investment Opportunity

For more than thirty years, Foxtons has helped buyers, sellers and landlords answer one of the most important questions in property:

What is something really worth? Every day its negotiators assess homes, advise clients and form opinions about value. They look beyond asking prices and consider location, demand, condition, timing and future potential. There is an irony in that. Today Foxtons itself has become the asset being valued. Not by homeowners, but by investors. The question is no longer what a house might be worth.

The question is:

What is Foxtons really worth? At first glance, the market’s view appears understandable.

The UK housing market has endured a difficult few years. Higher interest rates have reduced affordability, transaction levels have slowed and uncertainty surrounding taxation, regulation and government policy has weighed on confidence. Against that backdrop, it is hardly surprising that investors have become more cautious towards estate agencies.

Markets often dislike uncertainty but value investing has always asked a slightly different question. Rather than asking whether a business faces challenges, it asks whether those challenges have already been reflected in the price.

That distinction is important.

The market may not be wrong.

Estate agency is, by its nature, a cyclical business. When confidence falls, transactions slow. When confidence returns, activity usually follows. Every property professional understands this.

The more interesting question is whether today’s market valuation reflects only the current difficulties, or whether it also recognises the long-term strengths of the business.

That way of thinking isn’t unique to the stock market.

It is remarkably similar to the way experienced property developers assess opportunities. Most people walk into an ageing building and immediately see the problems.

They notice the outdated kitchen, the structural repairs, the tired decoration and the uncertainty. A developer sees exactly the same issues, but they also see something else. Potential!

They ask three simple questions. What is this asset worth today? What could it become? and is the current price low enough to justify taking the risk?

In many respects, investing in businesses follows exactly the same principles. The asset is different.

Instead of buying bricks and mortar, you are buying a company, its brand, its reputation, its customer relationships, its income and its future earning potential.

The discipline, however, remains remarkably similar. That is why Foxtons caught my attention. Not because it is a perfect business. Far from it. The interesting question is whether it is a better business than today’s market believes?

For many investors, the obvious investment case is simple. If the housing market eventually recovers, Foxtons should benefit. That may prove true but I suspect the more interesting opportunity lies somewhere else.

It lies not in selling more homes. It lies in managing them. Over the last decade, the private rented sector has changed dramatically. Being a landlord is no longer simply about collecting rent each month.

Compliance requirements have increased, legislation has become more complex and the administrative burden has grown significantly. For many landlords, owning rental property now resembles running a small business. That has quietly changed the economics of estate agency. Historically, many letting agents operated on a largely transactional model.

They introduced a tenant, completed the paperwork and moved on to the next instruction. Today, that model is evolving. Increasingly, landlords are looking for professional companies to manage the entire process on their behalf. That shift may prove more significant than many investors currently appreciate.

Part 2: 

What Happens When an Estate Agent Becomes the Investment Opportunity

 

From Estate Agent to  something a bit  more, If that observation is correct, then perhaps the real opportunity is not simply a recovery in residential sales. It is the continued evolution of the lettings business.

One of the biggest changes I have witnessed during my career is the way landlords now view property management. There was a time when many landlords happily managed everything themselves. They found tenants, collected rent, organised repairs and dealt with the paperwork. That world has changed. Successive waves of legislation, increasing compliance requirements and the sheer complexity of managing residential property have persuaded many landlords that professional management is no longer a luxury. It has become a necessity. That trend may prove to be one of the most significant structural changes the industry has seen. Ironically, one of the factors that appears to have unsettled investors has been uncertainty surrounding changes to renters’ rights and the potential impact on tenancy patterns.

The concern is understandable. More frequent tenancy changes can make income appear less predictable and increase the administrative work involved in managing property. Markets rarely like uncertainty but there is another way of looking at it.

Movement within the rental market does not automatically mean less business. Quite the opposite may prove true. Every new tenancy creates work. Properties must be prepared, marketed, referenced, inspected and re-let. In a market where demand continues to exceed the supply of good rental homes, vacant properties are often re-let quickly. Each new tenancy also creates an opportunity for rents to be reviewed in line with prevailing market conditions. None of this guarantees higher profits. Additional activity also brings additional costs but it does suggest that greater complexity may increase the value of professional management rather than reduce it.

If that proves to be the case, the market may eventually conclude that the greatest strength of businesses such as Foxtons lies not in the number of homes they sell, but in the relationships they maintain with landlords over many years. That raises an interesting question.

Could Foxtons gradually evolve into something closer to a property services platform? I do not mean a subscription business in the way Netflix  operate.

Property will never work like that. What I mean is something much simpler.

A business where the relationship with the landlord does not begin and end with finding a tenant. Instead, the company becomes a long-term partner throughout the life of the investment.

Managing compliance. Co-ordinating maintenance. Collecting rent. Renewing tenancies. Advising landlords as legislation changes. Supporting them year after year.

That changes the economics of the relationship.

Transactions happen once. Relationships continue.

Investors often place a higher value on recurring income than one-off transactions because recurring relationships tend to be more predictable over time. Perhaps that is where the market is looking at Foxtons through an outdated lens. One comparison I find particularly interesting is Savills.

The comparison is not perfect. Savills is a much larger, more diversified business with an international presence and significant commercial operations.

It would be unrealistic to suggest that Foxtons simply becomes another Savills but Savills demonstrates something important. Property businesses do not have to be valued solely on the number of transactions they complete.

The market is also prepared to recognise the value of expertise, trusted relationships and a broader range of professional services. That leads to an important distinction.

Savills, Its breadth, reputation and diversification have earned the confidence of investors over many years and its reflected in its share price.

Value investing has never been about buying the highest quality company regardless of price. It is about understanding the relationship between price and intrinsic value. The interesting question, therefore, is not whether Foxtons is a better company than Savills. The more interesting question is whether Foxtons represents the better value opportunity at today’s valuation.

Those are very different questions.

For a value investor, that distinction can make all the difference.

 

Part 3 – 17th July 2026

What Happens When an Estate Agent Becomes the Investment Opportunity

Owning a Business While You Wait One of the reasons property has always been attractive to investors is because it offers two potential rewards.

The first is income. A landlord receives rent from a property they own. The second is capital growth. Over time, if the asset becomes more valuable, the owner benefits.

Investing in a company follows a similar principle. When someone buys shares, they become a part owner of a business. If that business is profitable and chooses to return some of those profits to shareholders, the owner may receive income through dividends. The share price may move up and down in the short term, just as property values fluctuate but the underlying question remains the same. What is this asset producing today?

And what could it be worth in the future? This is where value investing differs from simply following market sentiment. A value investor is not trying to predict every movement in a share price. They are trying to understand whether the price being offered reflects the true potential value of the asset. That does not mean every investment works.

It does not mean every overlooked company becomes a success. It simply means looking beyond the immediate headlines and asking whether the market may be focusing too heavily on today’s problems while overlooking tomorrow’s possibilities.

Not Every Investment Looks Like Coca-Cola It is also important to recognise what Foxtons is not it is not Coca-Cola. It is not the type of company that investors such as Warren Buffett have historically admired most, a global brand with predictable demand, exceptional consistency and a business model that has remained resilient for generations.

Foxtons operates in a cyclical industry. It is affected by housing transactions, interest rates, regulation and changes in consumer behaviour. There are genuine risks.

Value investing is not only about finding perfect businesses. Sometimes it is about finding businesses where expectations have become so negative that the market may be overlooking their underlying strengths.

 

The question is not whether Foxtons is another Coca-Cola. It is not. The question is whether the market is valuing Foxtons only on its current challenges, while ignoring what the business could become.

The Same Principles, A Different Asset Perhaps the most interesting lesson from looking at Foxtons as an investment is that property investors and value investors are not as different as they first appear.

Both look beyond the immediate condition of an asset.

Both consider income, quality, opportunity and future potential.

Both ask:

What is this asset worth today?

What could it become?

And am I paying a price that reflects that potential?

 

Valuing a business is not so different from valuing an investment property. The asset may be different, but the principles are remarkably similar. You are looking for quality, income, potential and a price that makes sense. Whether the market agrees with you today is another question entirely. Markets fluctuate. Headlines change. Sentiment comes and goes but the discipline of understanding value remains.

Sometimes the market gets it right.

Sometimes it does not.

The challenge and the opportunity is recognising the difference.

For decades, Foxtons has helped people understand the value of property. The irony is that the company itself has now become the asset being valued. The question for investors is the same question Foxtons has helped thousands of clients answer over the years:

What is this asset really worth?

 

Editor’s Note

This article reflects my personal observations and opinions as at Friday, 17 July 2026. During the course of writing, Foxtons’ share price began to recover from its recent lows. That does not change the central question explored here. Share prices move every day. The challenge for long-term investors is determining whether the underlying value of a business differs from the price the market is currently willing to pay.

Disclaimer

This article is intended to encourage discussion about value investing and the property industry. It is not personal investment advice, nor is it a recommendation to buy or sell shares. Readers should carry out their own research and seek appropriate advice before making any investment decisions.