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The sales surge will continue through the rest of this year and the number of transactions will continue to rise despite worries over the wind-down of Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme, Winkworth has predicted as it reports profits down by over 20% during the lockdown months.
The company says the extraordinary influence of the stamp duty holiday will keep the momentum going, highlighting the negative impact that increased stamp duty has had on the property market and its liquidity since the end of 2014 when George Osborne brought in the current system.
“Whilst the extent to which some of the exceptional trends will continue longer-term is not yet clear, in the absence of further Covid-19 restrictions we expect both sales and rentals activity to be positive for the remainder of the year,” the company says.
Hard hit
The comments are within its latest trading statement, which reveal its business took a relatively hard hit during the Covid lockdown months, although the company claims it took market from competitors once the market re-awoke.
Nevertheless, revenues during the first six months of the year were down 4.15% compared to 2019 and profits were down 20.24%.
“In relative terms, our first half performance in sales was satisfactory and lettings and management proved solid,” says CEO Dominic Agace (left)
“We have seen a spike in activity in the first two months of the second half and, if this carries through to the rest of the year, we hope to make up much of the ground lost in the second quarter.
“Our balance sheet continues to be strong and we are working hard to explore new opportunities for organic growth.”
Blinded by optimism – watch sales drop off in Jan as solicitors can’t complete the transactions before the end of March, or people re-neg the agreed price forcing down prices… along with rising unemployment and the small matter of £500bn debt that someone has to pay for, brexit, covid, the list goes on….