31st Jan 2019 11:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Property franchise Belvoir Lettings PLC said on Thursday it expects to see pretax profit for 2018 to be in line with expectations, amid double digit growth in revenue.
Belvoir said it outperformed both the sales and lettings elements of the housing market and the financial services market in the year, with revenue up by 21% at GBP13.7 million from GBP11.3 million.
Management services fees from lettings for 2018 were up 7.1%, with underlying growth of 2.6% ahead of the UK rental index of 1.8%.
Fees from property sales were up 8.5%, compared to HM Revenue & Customs reporting a 2.0% decrease in residential property transactions for the year.
In addition, Belvoir Lettings said that the legislation placing a ban on tenant fees will come into effect on June 1. The company has assessed that the ban will be less than 6% on gross profit initially, reducing further to 3% over a nine-month period.
"In 2018, Belvoir delivered on its promise to support franchisee growth through its Assisted Acquisitions programme, adding network revenue of GBP6.9 million, ahead of our GBP6.6 million target for the year and over double that achieved in 2017. Meanwhile, we are also pleased to see our organic lettings growth and our increase in sales transactions exceeding market performance," said Chief Executive Officer Dorian Gonsalves.
"The group's diversification into financial services has also delivered growth, and our late-2018 investment in MAB Glos will provide the platform from which to offer specialist high street mortgage advice through our network of lettings and estate agents," Gonsalves added.
Belvoir Lettings will publish its annual results on April 2.
Shares in Belvoir Lettings were up 4.4% at 94.49 pence on Thursday.
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