Savills
-
Latest property news
Go-to estate agent employer for graduate applicants revealed
Savills has been named Graduate Employer of Choice in a survey of over 20,000 applicants by The Times newspaper. Competitors JLL were placed second and Knight Frank third. The awards were held last week in London and presented by Martin Birchall from specialist market research company High Fliers. This is the 11th time that Savills has won the accolade from the newspaper, which also recently placed the company 94th in the UK within its other graduate rankings scheme, Top 100 Graduate Employers. This was the first time the company has been included in the list, which is topped by accounting giant PwC, and makes it the only agent to get into the rankings this year. Savills is coy about how much it pays its annual 170-strong graduate intake, but website Glassdoor.co.uk reckons Savills pays starter associates £36,275. Knight Frank pays £37, 169, the website says, and JLL approximately £31,000. Mark Ridley, CEO of Savills UK and Europe (pictured), says: “To have secured this award for the eleventh consecutive year is a tremendous achievement and one of which we are incredibly proud. “Furthermore, this prestigious recognition underlines the importance we place on offering a first class programme that provides our graduates…
Read More » -
Latest property news
In a nutshell: the property share price freefall
If the share price of the UK’s residential stockmarket-listed corporates are the bellwether of the industry’s future health then estate agents should be battening down the hatches. Investors in London’s stock exchange clearly think Brexit, the recent Stamp Duty increases and last week’s letting fees ban are going to make selling or renting homes harder and less profitable in the coming months. Share prices have dropped alarmingly. Compared to a year ago when Brexit was still only a possibility, Countrywide’s share price is down by 52%, Foxtons by 37%, LSL Property Services by 33%, Belvoir Lettings by 15.7% and Savills by 13.9%. Even the industry’s digital superstars, so beloved of the City in recent years, have taken substantial hits including Purplebricks (-31%) and Rightmove (-11%) although Zoopla, whose model has helped its share price grow since August, is only down by half a percent as is Belvoir Lettings. Savills has also done better during the recent bloodbath which UBS analyst Heidi Richardson says is because the stockmarket knows only 9% of its sales come from selling homes in the UK. Purplebricks survived the lettings fees ban much better than its more traditional competitors after rushing out a statement that the…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Hey, young man? YOPA hires Village People for TV campaign
On first viewing the new TV advertising campaign by hybrid agency YOPA looks like a good idea, but will many of the target audience – 30-somethings looking to save on their house move – recognise the stars featured in it? YOPA, which clearly has cash to spend following Savills’ recent £16m investment in the business, has filmed three ads featuring 1970s/1980s disco group Village People – best known for their hits In The Navy and Y.M.C.A. During the first ad which is now on TV the six ageing members of the group are shown discussing whether to ‘move on’ while sat around a kitchen table. Two more ads are to be aired later this year. “The concept of The Village People needing a helping hand to move on proved irresistible for these ads,” says Daniel Attia, co-founder of YOPA (pictured, left). “Aside from the comedy that the situation presents, it’s a message that fundamentally rings true: so many of us delay moving home because the process is so stressful, not to mention hugely expensive.” YOPA started out as an online-only agent and its acronym used to stand for ‘Your Online Property Agent’ but in August last year it changed its business model…
Read More » -
Features
The battle for North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire has become a battleground for dominance among the portals, says Nigel Lewis.
Read More » -
Agencies & People
YOPA gets investment from Savills
Now Savills joins the internet set, by buying into online agent YOPA.
Read More » -
Agencies & People
Stock options
Buy, sell, hold? Overperforming, underperforming – what does it mean when Rightmove shares go up, or Barratt falls out of bed?
Read More » -
Housing Market
UK house prices look set to soar
The UK is the fourth best place in the world to invest in residential property, owed largely to a general housing shortage and the country’s economic growth, according to research by Savills. The results from the study, based on economic performance and growth prospects alongside population growth, found that the UK housing market, which has seen prices soar on average by 20 per cent since 2010, was ranked behind only the US, United Arab Emirates and Singapore as the best place to make a return on rents and increasing property values. “When a growing population, growing affluence and limited housing or land supply converge, we would anticipate real house price growth,” said Yolande Barnes (left), Director of Savills World Research. A separate residential market report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) also says that the growing gulf between supply and demand is driving residential property prices higher and the organisation now predicts that house prices are set to rise by 6 per cent in 2015. The RICS price indicator reached a 15-month high in August, with a net balance of 53 per cent more respondents reporting price increases, with growth being recorded across all parts of the UK.…
Read More »
