Agency and surveying giant LSL Property Services has reported an 11 per cent surge in revenue and a massive 87 per cent rise in pre-taxprofits in 2014.
LSL - more familiar to the public for its string of High Street agency brands including Your Move and Reeds Rain - earned £287.5m last year, up from £258.6m in 2013. But the most dramatic figure was its pre-tax profit spike from £17.1m in 2013 to no less than £31.9m in 2014.
"The year saw the achievement of our profitability per branch target that we set in 2011 whilst Marsh & Parsons expanded its branch footprint in a difficult market. The surveying division secured new contracts on improved margins. I'm also delighted that our investment in Zoopla delivered an exceptional return to shareholders according to chairman Simon Embley.
He says 2014 was a year of two halves for the residential agency side of his firm.
The year started very strongly continuing the trend we saw in the second half of 2013 with house purchase approvals, as measured by the Bank of England, up 35 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2014 and by 19 per cent in the first half for the year says Embley.
A slowing market, MMR and stamp duty reform hit the market in the second half of the year when there was a general slowing of activity as sentiment weakened he says.
Meanwhile LSL's latest house price figures show that at £273,528, the typical property is now £34,192 higher than at height of the housing boom in February 2008; over half of that rise has been added in the past year, it claims.
Comments
Agreed!
They better sell rose zoopla shares pretty quick! ;)