Countrywide acquisition of Lanes Land & New Homes

Countrywide upgrades profit forecast

Countrywide has increased its profit forecast on the back of the improving state of the residential property market. Shares in Britain’s biggest estate agency- seen as an indicator of the health of the residential property sector – rose by as much as 5.6 per cent at one point last week after it announced that it now expects pre-tax profit and other charges to reveal a “modest improvement” on its previous expectations. In November, the company warned investors that it would not hit its full-year profit forecasts for 2015, after an expected post-election boost in the housing market failed to materialise. But despite the upturn in profit forecast, Countrywide said that the future state of the housing market remained uncertain, particularly due to the hike in stamp duty on second homes, which is set to be introduced in April, not to mention Government plans to introduce less favourable tax relief for landlords – to be phased in over a four-year period from April 2017. The company said: “It is too early to predict what the trend in residential transactions will show in 2016, although approved mortgage volumes including owner occupier in recent months have been ahead of the previous year, which…

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