Foxtons' figures released to the City this morning confirm a huge slump in sales in 2016 - and even lettings revenue dipped.
Sales revenue was £55.5m, down 23 per cent, and according to the firm "driven by a marked step down in activity in the second half [of the year] following the EU referendum and stamp duty changes".
Lettings revenue was £68.3m but even this was down over the year - it dipped one per cent, although Foxtons this morning said the rental sector "provides a consistent, recurring revenue stream."
As a results, profits before tax dived - £18.8m in 2016 after £41m in 2015.
There was some cheer with mortgage revenue reaching £8.9m, some seven per cent up on the previous year.
The agency opened seven branches last year - and two in February 2017 - taking the network to 67.
A statement to shareholders and the City from Foxtons chief executive Nic Budden says: “Last year’s London property market was severely impacted by an unprecedented sequence of events with changes to stamp duty and the EU referendum vote leading to a substantial reduction in property sales transactions, especially in Central London.
"We were not immune to the decline in volumes, although our lettings business proved more resilient, whilst our mortgage broking business also performed well. We expect trading conditions to remain challenging throughout 2017. Should current sales activity continue through the remainder of this year, it is likely that 2017 sales volumes will be below last year."
This morning's results were predicted by both agency industry and City experts.
In January Foxtons revealed that in the final quarter of last year its revenues were only £26m - down a quarter on the same period of 2015 - while for 2016 as a whole revenues were down to £133m - 11 per cent less than the year before.
Even so, last month saw the openings of new branches in Wembley and Wood Green, in line with what the firm at the time called its “organic growth strategy that aims to continue strategic expansion of its network of branches throughout London and the Home Counties.”
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Extremes of the London bubble-al your eggs in one basket. Feeling the Foxtons image is not as strong as it once was .If a network//brand like this is posting these type of results what about the smaller 2/3 branch networks ? On London-LSL paid how much for Marsh and Parsons ? profits in a year down form 298k a branch to 176K. Who made that decision then ?
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