Strong figures from Countrywide and Connells

Countrywide's half-year figures show the group has had its strongest six monthly financial performance in the last seven years.

Total income rose by 29 per cent to £334.5m with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 70 per cent at £45.0m. Pre-tax profits were up a whopping 202 per cent at £37.1m.

The agency group also enjoyed a £14.6 million profit on the disposal of most of its stake in Zoopla when the portal staged its Initial Public Offering in June.

Interim chairman David Watson says the growth of the housing market over more than a year now has led to the strong momentum we are experiencing across all our divisions.

He promises that Countrywide will deliver its best ever group performance this year.

Watson is interim chairman for only one more month before the arrival of former medical insurance executive Alison Platt who takes over the CEO role on September 1, when former CEO Grenville Turner becomes non-executive chairman.

Platt has worked at medical insurance giant BUPA for over 20 years, holding senior roles including Chief Operating Officer for its UK private hospitals and, more recently, leading the firm's growing international businesses in Poland, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the US, as well as new markets in Asia and the Middle East.

Meanwhile the Connells Group has announced pre-tax profits of £42.6m in the first half of the year, compared to £23m in 2013.

This result, which represents an 85% improvement, follows the group's announcement yesterday that it had acquired Peter Alan, the Welsh agency with 26 branches, for £16.4m.