Connells reveals good start to year and increased market share during 2017
In stark contrast to its struggling rival Countrywide, Connells says it is doing well despite lower sales volumes within the market, and increased its market share by 4% last year.
The Connells Group has made a bullish opening trading statement for 2018 revealing that more applicants are registering to buy homes with the company.
“We are delighted to be entering 2018 with a pipeline that is up compared to last year, and we are confident that, through our breadth of experience, we will continue to build on the success of 2017 and further increase our market share in 2018,” says David Plumtree, Connells Group Estate Agency Chief Executive (pictured, below).
Connells also says the company increased its market share last year by 4% despite official figures likely to reveal a 10% decrease in the number of people moving home during 2017, it says.
Despite the sales slowdown, Connells says the number of properties it sold decreased by only 3% last year and that “clearly the increase in our share of the new instruction market has enabled us to fare better than the market as a whole in respect of our sales results,” says David Plumtree.
Connells results are in stark contrast to its main rival in the market, Countrywide, which yesterday revealed that its income from sales and lettings decreased by 14% last year.
Unwavering focus
“During the course of 2017, Connells Group’s market share has increased as a result of the unwavering focus placed within the business on winning new instructions, and our commitment to offering a full service and consistently good value to our customers via our 600-strong high street estate agency branch network” says David.
Connells, which is owned by Skipton Building Society, made a pre-tax profit of £31.5m during the first six months of 2017, marginally up on the same period last year on revenues of £204.8 million.
The best performing part of the business during this period was lettings, where income increased by 14.5%.
