Savills’ UK residential business increased its turnover by 6% to £58.2 million and profits by 17% to £6.3 million during the first six months of the year despite sales volumes that were down 7% in London and 10% outside the capital.

The company says the increased revenue was created by higher house prices in the prime markets it specialises in. The average prices of property sold by Savills in London increased by 16% to £3.2 million and in the regions up 3% to £1.2 million.

The company says its new homes sales team also did well, increasing development revenue by 17%, as did its business that consults on the build-to-let and social housing sectors.

But Savills’ group revenues didn’t fare so well. The commercial property market in the UK and Asia is faltering, and Savills UK commercial business saw revenues down 14%, for example. This means the company’s overall group performance is muted – revenue is up by only 2% and profits before tax are down 18% to £25.7 million.

“In the face of some challenging market conditions, Savills has delivered a resilient first half performance reflecting our geographic diversity, breadth of operations, recent business investment activity and the strength of our UK residential business,” says outgoing Group Chief Executive Jeremy Helsby (left).

“We have a robust pipeline of activity for the second half, despite an environment of escalating political and economic uncertainty, and we continue to anticipate that our performance for the full year will be in line with the Board’s expectations.”