Countrywide warns full year will be at lower end of market views
Estate agency Countrywide cautioned on Thursday that it expects results for the full year to be towards the lower end of the range of market expectations as housing transactions slow across the UK.
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Total group revenue for the third quarter was up 2% from the second quarter but down 7% on the year at £175.1m, which the group said represents a “resilient” performance in London sales and lettings and in financial services, and a solid performance in B2B, offsetting a slowdown in transactions across the UK.
Within estate agency, third-quarter revenue fell to £47.8m from £57m in the same period a year ago, with transaction levels up compared with the first and second quarters. Meanwhile, lettings revenue was £47.3m, down from £49m, with London flat year on year and a small decline in the rest of the UK.
Chief executive officer Alison Platt said: "We have a clear strategy founded on being the provider of choice for property services in the UK and to give customers the ability to use Countrywide across multiple channels. During the quarter, we continued to extend multi-channel offerings to our customers, which shows through in the resilience of the overall revenue performance. Our focus on cost reduction remains equally unabated and we are mobilising the next phase of our cost transformation programme.
“The market for housing transactions remains challenging and is likely to be down overall compared with 2016. As in previous years, the final quarter remains important and we currently expect our results for the full year to be towards the lower end of the range of market expectations."
In its half-year report in July, the company had said it expected full-year results to be within the range of market expectations.
At 1030 GMT, the shares were down 1.2% to 127.25p.