The City’s belief that even the largest estate agent chains have an underlying problem is highlighted by the Hunters share price which, after its up-beat annual results were announced last week, has dropped significantly.

Since December last year the Hunters PLC share price on AIM had been holding steady at around 65p but on the day the results were issued dropped to 58p – and has since only recovered slightly.

This is despite the York-based company revealing a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £1.8 million on revenues of £13.8 million, up 15% compared to the year before.

Branch openings

Hunters says all its growth has come from franchisee branch openings, of which there are have been ten taking place every year, on average.

In its results Hunters also predicting that it would outperform the market by 7% this year, and that so far instructions for the first two months of the year increased by 9%.

Hunters has also been on the acquisition path recently and in March bought the 15-branch Gloucestershire and Bristol agency Besley Hill, bringing its network to over 200 branches.

“The company has shown impressive growth, opening 30 new branches including converting 20 existing businesses,” says Chairman Kevin Holinrake (pictured, left).

“We continued to retain our 96% customer satisfaction rating and increasing revenue per branch by 7% against a market estimated to have been down 2% versus a year ago.”