Savills reveals its "highly resilient" UK residential performance in 2017

Savills has reported good figures for 2017 although most of its strongest performance was outside the world of residential property.

In a statement to shareholders and the City this morning, the company - which operates across the world in a range of property-related sectors - says that last year group revenue was up 11 per cent to £1.6 billion with underlying profit up 3.5 per cent at £140.5m. 

When identifying its operational highlights, the statement says: “Strength in key commercial markets, geographical diversity and the resilience of our residential businesses drove an improved performance for Savills in 2017.”

Consultancy revenue world-wide was up 14 per cent and property management rose nine per cent; its assets-under-management total rose five per cent to £14.6 billion.

The statement highlights “strong performances in the UK and Asia Pacific including Hong Kong, China, Australia and Japan” amongst its transaction successes last year.

"Revenue and profits grew in each of our global transaction advisory, consultancy and property management businesses despite challenging conditions in a number of markets” explains Jeremy Helsby, group chief executive.

“The strength of our business in key transactional markets across the globe, including a highly resilient performance in our UK residential business, were key to this result” he adds.

“We have made a solid start to 2018 with a pipeline of business carried over from last year in many markets, although this is against the backdrop of heightened market uncertainty, geopolitical risks and rising interest rates. We anticipate a tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in some markets; however, at this early stage in the year our expectations for 2018 remain unchanged."