Member Article

Foxtons remains optimistic despite slowing property market

London estate agency Foxtons has cited the General Election and changes to stamp duty charges as reasons for slowing growth in the capital’s property market.

For the quarter ended 30 September 2015, the estate agency saw group turnover increase 8.8. per cent to £43.5m. This comprises property sales commissions of £18.5m up 12.8%, reflecting market share gains in the existing business and Foxtons’ aggressive network expansion.

The controversial estate agency, which is often accused of playing a major role in the ‘gentrification’ of city housing, saw “steady growth” in residential lettings of £22.6m up 3.3%.

Having opened seven new branches since the beginning of the year, Foxtons said it is focusing on the “high growth” areas of Outer London.

The firm remains on track with its plan to open between 5 -10 branches each year with a pipeline of new sites secured for the next 18 months.

Earlier this year, the estate agency announced between 50-60 redundancies following a difficult end to 2014 as the run up the General Election resulted in hesitation amongst house buyers.

Nic Budden, CEO, said: “We are in a strong position to capitalise on market growth currently being seen in outer London areas through the organic expansion of our branch network.

“Although we expect any recovery of the property sales market to be slow due to low current levels of stock, we enter the fourth quarter with a £1bn sales pipeline which is well above the same point last year and based on current market conditions, we remain broadly on track to meet full year expectations”.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .