Foxtons
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Latest property news
Safe haven? Foxtons sales manager jumps ship to Colliers International
Foxtons' sales manager Christopher Clare has moved to the arguable safer environment of a new role at Colliers International.
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Latest property news
Foxtons turns to Saatchi to help boost its flagging business
Estate agency Foxtons has employed the services of global advertising gianlt M&C Saatchi to launch a campaign across London.
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Foxtons makes its first loss as shrinking London sales market decimates revenues
Foxtons says it made a loss over the past six months as London’s difficult sales market drove down its turnover by 9% to £53 million during the first six months of the year. The unprecedented £2.5 million loss before tax compares to a £3.8 million profit during the same period last year. Its half yearly interim results make for grim reading, although at least its lettings business is holding its own. 23% sales decline Revenue created within lettings only dropped by 1% to a revenue of £31.7 million, compared to a 23% decline in sales revenue to £17.2 million. The rest of its revenue came from the firm’s Alexander Hall mortgages business, which turned over 4.1 million and is surviving on remortgaging activity rather than property purchases. Comments within the report suggest that, while Foxtons is facing harsh trading conditions, it is likely to be in the same boat as other London estate agents. Foxtons says it remains the market leader in both sales and lettings despite the poor figures, suggesting there is little that CEO Nic Budden and his leadership team can do. “The property sales market in London is undergoing a sustained period of very low activity levels with…
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Trump’s trade war with China wipes millions off value of industry big names
Donald Trump's to balance the importing and exporting books with China has had a direct and surprising effect on UK property PLC share prices.
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A tale of two agents: Hunters celebrates as Foxtons sinks
Two leading estate agents have released their latest trading statements over the past 24 hours but as performance goes, Foxtons and Hunters might as well be on different planets, their results reveal. Hunters this morning reports that its franchised sales and lettings business is in rude health. Chairman and MP Kevin Hollinrake will say at the firm’s AGM later today that the company has already seen 12 new branches join its network and that there is a strong pipeline of sales including increased instructions during the first four months of this year, up by 5.4% year-on-year. He also says the first half of the year is shaping up to be “better than anticipated” and that its customer service approval rate has increased to 96%. Foxtons At the same time Foxtons has also released its latest trading statement, which paints an entirely gloomier picture – even though both companies are competitors in many parts of London. At its AGM yesterday the company revealed that its sales, lettings and mortgage businesses performed worse during the first quarter of 2018 than the year before, warning that “conditions in the London property market remain very challenging with sales volumes lower than the year before”.…
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Foxtons CEO cashes in shares worth £800,000
Payday for Nic Budden comes despite tanking profits at the company which he has blamed on 'historically low' sales transaction levels in London.
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Foxtons results reveal tanking profits but confident dismissal of online competitors
Foxtons has revealed its worse full-year results since 2013 including profits before tax which tanked by 65% year-on-year. Its Annual Report and Accounts for 2017 also reveal that revenue decreased by 11.4% and earnings per share by 67%, while its margin dropped to 12.8%, down from over 35% in 2013. That year its profits before tax were £38.9 million, but in 2017 were just £6.5 million. Despite its poor results, both its CEO Nic Budden and CFO Mark Berry received bonuses, although they were lower than in 2016. Budden (pictured, left) was paid a package worth £914,000 last year including a bonus of £218,000 while Berry was paid £490,000 including a bonus of £153,000. Foxtons results document blames the poor performance squarely on its sales operation, which Foxtons says has been battered by the sluggish property markets inside the M25/London area. Sales revenue fell by 23% year-on-year during 2017. This, it says, is largely due to a lack of confidence among buyers and vendors caused by the ongoing Brexit process. But Foxtons also says the 2016 changes to Stamp Duty continue to depress volumes. But unlike most of its competitors, Foxtons continues to focus on developing its own in-house online…
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Property PLC share prices tumble as global stock markets stumble
The global collapse in share prices has hit the main property market PLCs this morning, except for Hunters. LSL Property Services, which owns Reeds Rains, Marsh & Parsons and Your Move, has been hit the hardest. Its shares had dropped by 7.55% by lunchtime today while almost all the others saw their share price cut too. Countrywide’s already much-reduced share price dropped by 5.1% and Belvoir by 3.8% while all the other saw reductions of approximately 2% including ZPG, Rightmove, Savills, Purplebricks and the Property Franchise Group. These share price drops reflect the wider global collapse in confidence among investors, and although the FTSE 100 Index has been drifting downwards over the past five days, the biggest drop took place this morning when it saw a 3.5% drop at the opening of trading, mirroring similar drops in France, Germany and other European markets. The drops in Europe follow worse falls in Japan and the US, where their key stock market indicators fell by 4.7% and 4.6% respectively. These drops were in turn triggered by improved trading conditions in the US, which led to speculation about potential higher inflation and therefore interest rates across the globe. But the global share price…
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Homeless pair use Foxtons to put a roof over their heads
London agent Foxtons do their bit for charity including supporting the capital’s Air Ambulance service but an initiative taken by a pair of homeless people over the past two weeks probably won’t make it onto their corporate social responsibility website. Max Bloom and Stephen Watt, both of whom had recently been made homeless, built a floating single-room house out of borrowed beer kegs, old sheds and used discarded Foxtons For Sale signs to make its striking roof. The juxtaposition of the Foxtons signs and the floating home created a stir on Twitter, and one neighbouring boat owner told The Evening Standard it was “worthy of the Tate modern”. But the Canal and River Trust aren’t art fans. The pair were forcibly evicted from their floating home last Thursday early in the morning and given two minutes to clear their possessions before a floating crane destroyed the structure. Solar panels Max and Stephen had spent a month planning the house, which included heating and cooking facilities, and had planned to add solar panels. The pair had also put in an application to the trust to have it registered. The pair have now been made homeless again. The trust say the hut…
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Foxtons reports profits down by 43% last year as London market pain continues
Foxtons’ results for 2017 are out and the company says its group turnover, profits and both sales and lettings revenues were down year-on-year but that it has some “strategic initiatives” up its sleeves due to be revealed next week. The company’s profits took the hardest knock. They dropped from £24.6 million in 2016 to £15 million last year, or 43%, as sales within London’s multi-million pound streets remain quiet despite hopes that the exchange rate would persaude more foreigners to buy into the capital’s bricks and mortar. Revenues from its sales operation dropped by nearly 24% year-on-year from £55 million to £42 million, although the crash in volumes within the capital appears to have eased during the final three months of year. But the company says it expects the pain in London to continue. Unlike last week’s Countrywide results which saw disappointing figures for both sides of its core business, Foxtons’ lettings operation continues to deliver at least only moderate revenue reductions – down last year by just 3%. Struggling performance But, despite the weak business performance, CEO Nic Budden appears to be dodging City, investor and board calls for fresh leadership. The company blames its struggling performance on the…
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