Online estate agent, Purplebricks, has slashed its sales forecast for the current financial year to between £130m and £140m. Its previous forecast was between £165m and £175m.

Shares at the company plunged by as much as 40 per cent following the news, as well as news of the departure of the chief executives of both its UK and US business, as reported by the BBC.

A local estate agent isn't surprised that the bottom has fallen out of the online estate agent market.

Kim Moore, owner of HMT Sales & Lettings in Cheltenham, said: "People are coming back to the traditional estate agents. They enjoy the personal service we offer and that we deal with sales progression. Purple Bricks ask for a non-refundable fee, paid in advance, so that takes away the incentive to actually sell a property. People are starting to wake up to that."

Purplebricks was launched in 2014, with the aim creating a lower cost, more flexible estate agent.

While the company has expanded rapidly, it has also seen losses grow as well.

In the financial year to April 2018, it reported a loss of £26m, up from £6m in the previous year.

Punchline said: "With rival estate agent Emoov going into administration  last year, could this be the beginning of the end for the online estate agents?"