Trouble ahead for Purplebricks as losses mount

Purplebricks, the online estate agent, has seen its losses almost double to £52.3m as the firm announced plans to exit the US and Australia.

Purplebricks boss, Vic Darvey, said: “We have taken the difficult decisions to exit our businesses in both Australia and the US as it is very important that we now focus our resources on the UK and Canada, where we have a strong established presence and where there are significant opportunities to grow market share and deliver profitable growth for shareholders.

“Both exits will be conducted in an orderly manner with the expectation they will be completed by the end of 2019.”