Lack of homes for sale hits profits

Countrywide, Foxtons, Savills, Martin & Co and Belvoir were among the main property firms to see their share prices fall last week amid housing market fears. The residential property market in parts of the country is taking time to recover especially in Prime Central London, where transaction levels remain at historically low levels owing to strong recent price growth and changes to stamp duty. Countrywide was one of the FTSE 250’s biggest fallers last week, with shares at one stage down 60.10p or 12.92 per cent to 404.90p, before later recovering to 412.79. Other listed estate agent firms also suffered, with Foxtons dropping 7p to 192.8p and Savills down 9.5p to 902.5p. Countrywide, which saw its annual operating profits drop 11 per cent in the nine months to September compared to the same period last year, has warned that its full-year profits are set to fall below its 2014 total of £121.1million, primarily due to a lack of homes coming up for sale after the anticipated post-election recovery in residential transactions failed to materialise. “Against the current backdrop of less than expected residential volumes, group EBITDA for the nine months to September 30 was 11 per cent below last year,”…

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