Profits jump by 40% at Your Move parent company LSL
But company has warned that dark clouds may be gathering for 2022 as rising inflation and the war in Ukraine reduce transactions by 19%, it has predicted.
LSL, the owner of Your Move, Reeds Rains and Marsh & Parsons, has reported an extraordinary 40% leap in profits, its full results for 2021 reveal.
Revenue grew by 23% to £327 million helped in part by its estate agency division increasing market share, it claims.
But LSL has warned that it expects the market to return to pre-Covid levels this year signalling for the first time that the industry is getting ready for a slowdown driven by rising inflation, higher mortgage rates and the war in Ukraine.
“These will affect our estate division in particular, and as always, we will be agile and respond to market conditions as required,” says Group Chief Executive David Stewart (pictured).
The company is planning for an 11% reduction in mortgage activity this year when compared with 2021, and a 19% reduction in housing transactions.
But 2021 was a bumper 12 months for the group, which includes both national and regional estate agency brands, asset management, conveyancing, surveying, insurance and mortgage businesses.
The company is also now the largest mortgage intermediary operator within the UK via its PRIMIS business, which Stewart says will help mitigate any downturn within the sales market.
And last year it partnered with a City investment firm to establish a £200m vehicle to buy up financial service firms around the UK, with several having already been achieved.
During 2021 LSL’s profits increased by 40% to £49.3 million while its estate agency saw profits rise by 53% £18.4 million which, the company says, reflects increasing residential market share across its core catchment areas and overall growth in the value of housing transactions.
