28th Feb 2019 10:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Foxtons Group PLC on Thursday said it swung to an annual loss due to the continued deterioration in the UK property sales market.
For 2018, the estate agent posted a pretax loss of GBP17.2 million compared to a GBP6.5 million profit a year ago. This decline was mainly driven by lower revenue and investment in people, brand and technology, Foxtons explained.
Revenue fell 5% year-on-year to GBP111.5 million, from GBP117.6 million, as a "resilient lettings performance" was offset by weakness in the London sales market, the company explained.
Lettings revenue rose 1% year-on-year to GBP67.0 million while sales revenue dropped 15% to GBP36.2 million.
"Our performance in 2018 was impacted by a further deterioration in the sales market, with transaction levels falling for another year from their already low levels. We are pleased with the lettings business and the investment we made earlier in the year helped to drive a good second half performance," Chief Executive Nic Budden said.
Looking ahead, the company said its sales outlook remains unchanged while it expects momentum in the lettings business to progress.
Foxtons did not propose a dividend for the year. Last year it had proposed to shareholders a payout of 0.70 pence per share held.
Foxtons shares were trading down 1.1% at 60.53 pence each on Thursday morning.
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