03 · Market

Market Sizing

A bottom-up count of the UK organisations Harla sells to. About 50,000 property professionals in total, 25,000 commercial property firms in the core market, and about 400 institutions. The serviceable market is roughly £390–705m a year.

Total market

~50,000

UK property professionals: agents, property managers, surveyors and property law firms.

Bottom-up range ~47,000–60,000. Overall market and awareness, not an active sales target.

Core market

~25,000

Commercial property firms: commercial agents, property managers, surveyors and property law firms.

Bottom-up range ~25,000–27,000 firms. Sold Growth, and Enterprise (£45k) for the larger operators. The focus of all pilot and direct sales activity.

Institutional

~400

Institutions, REITs and large managing groups.

Bottom-up range ~300–500. Sold Enterprise Portfolio and Strategic (£120–200k+). The source of the large deals.

Serviceable market

Segment Organisations ACV Market size
Core market (Growth) 25,000 £15–25k £375–625m
Institutional (Enterprise) ~400 £45–200k+ £18–80m
Serviceable market ~£390–705m

ARR of £2.23m at M36 is about 0.3–0.6% of the serviceable market. The 66 paid accounts at M36 are 0.26% of the core market.

How the tiers map to the segments

The £45k Enterprise tier is sold mainly to the larger operators within the 25,000. The ~400 institutions are reserved for the larger deals, with a focus on the long sales cycles needed to land £120k and £200k+ contracts.

This two-track structure is deliberate. Drawing Enterprise accounts from 25,000 firms means the 25-account target is just 0.1% of that market. It also lets Harla work the institutional segment as a focused list of named accounts, where a small number of £120k–200k+ wins creates outsized value. Every £45k Enterprise client becomes a live reference that strengthens the case and shortens the sales cycle with institutions.

The other ~25,000 organisations in the total market are smaller firms with nothing to buy after a pilot. They are outside the plan, and could be a later product opportunity through managing agents or occupier accounts.

Total market: ~50,000

The two largest property-services SIC codes come to about 46,500 businesses. Surveying and property law practices take the total to roughly 50,000 or more.

Source group Count Year Source
Estate agents (SIC 68.31, residential and commercial) 26,374 2026 IBISWorld
Property management on a fee or contract basis (SIC 68.32) 20,105 2026 IBISWorld
RICS-regulated firms (global, mostly UK) 10,066 2024 RICS annual review 2024
SRA-regulated law firms (all practice areas) 8,928 Oct 2025 SRA costs statement

The RICS and SRA counts overlap with the SIC codes and include firms outside property, so only part of each is added: surveying firms not already counted as agents, and law firms with a real estate practice. About 763,000 companies on Companies House are classified under real estate (NACE 68, InfobelPRO), but most are single-asset holding companies and private landlords. The 50,000 is the professional-services slice of that register.

Core market: ~25,000

Commercial agents and property managers together come to about 27,000 firms, which supports 25,000 as a count of commercial property firms.

Segment Count Source Fit for Growth (£15–25k)
Commercial real estate agents 6,835 (2026) IBISWorld Strong. Average firm has about 13 staff
Property managers (fee or contract basis) 20,105 (2026) IBISWorld Mixed. Includes residential block managers and housing associations
Surveying practices not already counted as agents Part of 10,066 RICS Partial. Valuation and building surveying firms manage fewer leases
Law firms with a real estate practice Part of 8,928 SRA Strong for the larger property practices

Firm size. The 25,000 counts firms of every size, and most UK businesses in these codes have fewer than 10 staff. A size filter from the ONS Division 68 employment size-band data (ad hoc 3260) will give a sourced count of firms with 10 or more employees. A smaller core market does not change the plan: even at 8,000–10,000 firms, 66 paid accounts by M36 is under 1% of the market, and the funnel would need about 12–15% engagement instead of 5%.

Institutional segment: ~400

Published counts put the institutional segment at roughly 300–500 organisations, so 400 is a defensible midpoint.

Source Count Year Notes
REIT businesses 165 2025 IBISWorld counts both listed and unlisted REIT entities
Real Estate:UK member organisations 500+ 2026 Formed from the merger of AREF, BPF and IPF in January 2026. Includes advisers and contractors, so it is an upper bound
AREF fund members 48 funds Jan 2025 Unlisted property funds, already covered by their managers

About 165 REITs, plus institutional fund and investment managers, plus the largest managing agents and occupiers with big leasehold estates, comes to around 400. Matching the Real Estate:UK membership against the REIT list gives a named account list for the £120k and £200k+ deals.

Method

Each segment sits inside the one above it: the 400 institutions within the core market, and the core market within the 50,000. The figures are counts of firms, not individuals. Because the sources overlap (an agency can also be RICS-regulated), the totals are ranges, not sums. The ONS, RICS and SRA figures are primary sources; the IBISWorld figures come from their published summary pages.

Wider market context

Source index