Savills profits surge as global real estate market comes roaring back
Estate agent giant Savills reported a surge in profits today as the real estate market came roaring back from a pandemic-induced slowdown in 2020.
Reported pre-tax profits for the firm jumped 180 per cent to £183.1m as the firm delivered a boost in revenues across its markets and divisions.
The group’s transactional advisory revenues grew 34 per cent in recovering markets, along with a 35 per cent boost in commercial transaction revenues overall, lifting total revenue for the group to £2.15bn.
Boss Mark Ridley said growth across divisions had made 2021 a bumper year for the firm .
“Savills delivered a record performance in 2021 reflecting the significant recovery in both residential and commercial transactional markets supported by growth in our less transactional Investment Management, Property Management and Consultancy businesses,” he said.
The firm’s continental Europe, Middle East and North American operations all rebounded from pandemic losses in 2020 to beat expectations and deliver healthy profits last year.
Continuing covid restrictions across markets allowed the firm to slash costs across areas like travel, events and entertainment, bosses said, which boosted the underlying profit margin to 9.3 per cent.
They painted an uncertain picture for the period ahead however, as the impact of the Ukraine crisis continues to muddy the economic outlook.
“Looking forward, at this stage it is too early to predict the economic, including longer term inflationary, impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the world’s real estate markets,” chairman Nicholas Ferguson said.
“Subject to this key uncertainty, we would anticipate real estate transaction volumes to normalise in the year ahead, alongside the continued recovery of global markets as they emerge from pandemic-related disruptions.”
Inflationary pressures could hike costs across many of Savills’ markets, Ferguson said, while the resurgence of travel and events was likely to bump up discretionary costs in the year head and tighten margins.