More than 150 British real estate agents have gone broke in the last year as pressure from online rivals continues to bite, a new study has found.

The figure is only five more than the year before but thousands of real estate agents in the UK are showing signs of financial stress, accountancy firm Moore Stephens said.

The pressure is being felt by both large and small agents as they deal with higher operating costs than competitors trading purely online, the report said.

“Insolvencies of high street estate agent are increasing as online competitors continue to chip away at their sales and undermine commission rates,” Moore Stephens’ spokesman Chris Marsden said.

“Some areas in the UK are appear to have an excess capacity of estate agents, which could mean there is not enough business to spread around as property transactions stagnate.

“Estate agents with a traditional model may have to look at whether they can reduce overheads and review their service offering to effectively compete in the current market.”