By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
One of the UK's fastest-growing online estate agents is drawing up plans for a stock market listing that would provide capital for an aggressive assault on established high street rivals.
Sky News has learnt that Purplebricks, which counts the City's best-known fund manager among its shareholders, has been talking to investment banks in recent weeks about working on a flotation.
The company is understood to be planning to hire advisers imminently, sources said on Friday.
The business is among a new breed of digitally-led estate agents which are attempting to bring a similar level of customer experience to industries such as holiday bookings and grocery shopping, which have been revolutionised by online competitors.
Purplebricks was set up less than a year ago, and now has backing from Neil Woodford, the former Invesco Perpetual fund manager, who set up his own asset management venture last year.
Mr Woodford invested £7m in Purplebricks, which enables home-owners to sell their properties for a flat fee of £599, compared to an average sum paid to estate agents of more than £5000 based on the typical commission of 1.8% of a property's value.
Purplebricks also offers a service to landlords, offering a tenant-finding service for a one-off fee of £199.
Its other backers are reported to include Errol Damelin, the former boss of payday lender Wonga, and Paul Pindar, former boss of Capita, the outsourcer.
Last autumn, Mr Woodford was quoted as saying that that the company had "the vision, the technology and an experienced management team. With the funding at its disposal, I see a significant opportunity for the business to lead the market in changing the way we buy and sell houses.
"Given that the vast majority of property searches take place on the Internet, a business that provides a 'virtual' offering without expensive high street offices can significantly undercut the current market."
Founded by brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce, who ran the estate agent Burchell Edwards before its sale in 2011, Purplebricks is far from the only new entrant to the market.
Sir Charles Dunstone, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, recently ploughed millions of pounds into HouseSimple, while the easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has launched a site called easyProperty.
The emerging online players have tried to add value to the property-selling process by allowing customers to personalise the services they use while charging lower fees than high street peers.
A number of estate agents have listed on the stock market in recent years, including Foxtons, the hard-charging firm known for its distinctive fleet of cars, and Zoopla Property Group.
A Purplebricks spokesman declined to comment.
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