Savills reports ‘astonishing’ post-lockdown estate agency revival
Globally Savills has seen revenues drop by up to 25% at its commercial operation but its UK residential bounced back strongly.
Savills UK estate agency has significantly outperformed the rest of its business where its global commercial property operations have been battered by Covid, its results for 2020 reveal.
The upmarket estate agency says its UK residential operation staged an ‘extraordinary’ recovery after the first lockdown until year end with revenues finishing 10% higher than 2019 at £153.2 million.
Underlying residential profits, which include build to rent and new homes, increased by 29% year-on-year to £23 million.
Its estate agency business did even better, increasing its revenues by 18% year-on-year.
“Of particular note was YOPA, the digital hybrid estate agency, which continued to take market share in the mainstream UK residential markets,” says chairman Nicholas Ferguson (pictured).
The agency says it residential post-lockdown renaissance was a result of Sunak’s stamp duty holiday and the pent-up demand created by new people’s desire to ‘escape to the country’.
This pushed up sales at its non-London branches by 26% year-on-year and the competition for properties ramped up its average agreed sale value from £1.13m to £1.26m.
In London, where the ‘rush to rural’ softened demand, the average property agreed sale value dropped by 8% to £1.96 million.
Lockdown also meant its core overseas client market was effectively barred from the market, and sales dipped by 11% year-on-year and exchanges by 10%.
Its lettings team remained resilient, with revenues falling by only 2% despite the challenging market conditions impacting London lettings significantly.
Mark Ridley, Group Chief Executive (pictured), says: “Savills delivered a robust performance in 2020 reflecting the strength and resilience of our global, diversified business.
“Much of this outperformance is due to our strategy of retaining the strength of our teams and focussing resolutely on addressing both the pandemic-related, and longer term, needs of our clients.”
Anthony Codling, former Jefferies analyst and now Twindig CEO, says: “Such is the strength of the results one has to question whether the stamp duty holiday was needed and could that money [have been] better spent on the NHS than helping Savills wealthy clients buy bigger homes.”
