Leap in house sales income for Savills as Covid bounce back continues

Savills has reported a bounce back after the Covid-hit performance in 2020.

The agency has substantial overseas and commercial property and consultancy income, so its UK residential revenue is a relatively small part of today’s half year figures.

Even so, what the company calls UK Residential Transaction performance was up  97 per cent - a year ago its figures were hit by the market close down of early 2020.

Over all of its activities, Savills group revenue was £932.6m, up £141.2m from a year ago.

Underlying pre-tax profit was £66.1m, up £52.9m from this time last year.

Group chief executive Mark Ridley says: "I am delighted that our strategy of maintaining full operating strength and high levels of client service through the pandemic has proven successful through the progressive recovery of many markets in which we operate. We have a strong balance sheet and are focused on continuing to develop our global businesses through the recovery period, maintaining a first class service to our clients and safeguarding our staff.

"Our Transactional businesses have benefited from improving sentiment in most markets, although travel restrictions still represent an obstacle to cross-border capital deployment. In particular, our Residential Transaction business delivered an exceptionally strong performance in the first half albeit we expect activity to return to more normal levels, particularly in the UK, during the second half of the year compared with a strong comparative period in H2 2020.”