9th Nov 2021 10:35
(Alliance News) - Savills PLC on Tuesday said it expects to surpass 2019's profit levels after seeing continued strong trade since June.
The London-based estate agent said it is likely to achieve profit "materially ahead of 2019" for 2021 after it has seen positive trading trends continue into the second half of the year. It posted pretax profit of GBP115.6 million in 2020, and GBP109.4 million in 2019.
Since June, Savills said its UK and Asia Pacific regions have been driving the positive performance.
"We have started to see the anticipated levels of recovery in Continental Europe and the Middle East and North America, albeit the latter regions have yet to return to 2019 levels of activity," it said.
The continued strength of UK prime residential markets has exceeded the firm's expectations and the anticipated tapering of market volumes in its segments is now expected to take effect through 2022 rather than hurting performance in second half of 2021.
"This, together with better than anticipated improvements in the UK commercial capital transaction markets, indicates that for the financial year as a whole the UK business is likely to materially exceed both our earlier expectations for 2021 and the outturn for 2019," Savills said.
It also expects outperformance in the Asia Pacific region on both bases.
In addition to improved trading, Savills said it has benefited from a continuation of lower than normal levels of discretionary expenditure which is expected to continue through the remainder of the year. "We anticipate that this expenditure will progressively increase through 2022," it said.
Savills said it expects more normalised trading and cost dynamics to resume in 2022.
Savills shares were up 1.3% to 1,438.00 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Greg Roxburgh; [email protected]
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