Savills sees uplift in mortgage market
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In an interim statement released today, Savills says it expects its full year results to be in line with market expectations, with conditions in the UK improving.
It says revenue at Savills Private Finance has stabilised over the period since June with some signs of improvement in the UK mortgage market, albeit off a very low base.
Savills says this, together with the cost cutting carried out earlier in the year has ensured that the business has traded in line with its expectations
In August, the financial services arm of Savills posted a loss of £2.1m before tax for the six months to June 2009.
But in its latest update, the firm says UK residential and Asia Pacific businesses have performed strongly whilst its European business has continued to face challenging market conditions
Its UK residential agency business has continued to perform strongly since June driven by recovery in the prime markets of London and the South East and there are some signs of calming since the end of September alongside the seasonal slowdown in new instructions.
In its statement it says: “This, together with the prospect of a general election and increased taxation in the second quarter of 2010, indicates that we should be cautious about further improvements in the market in the short term, but can take comfort from its improved stability into the fourth quarter of this year.
“The group has benefited from an increase in cost savings during the period which are tracking ahead of our expectations at over £60m for the year compared with the 2008 cost base.
“In difficult market conditions, this has enabled us to continue to invest in our business by maintaining much of our global capacity in transaction advisory services and selectively recruiting high quality talent without adversely affecting our performance expectations for the year as a whole.”
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