LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - London estate agent Foxtons said on Thursday that it performed in line with its expectations in the first quarter, reporting a jump in first-quarter lettings revenue but a drop in sales.
In the quarter to 31 March, lettings revenues rose 21% from the same period a year ago to £17.9m, while sales revenues fell 9% to £9.6m and revenues form the mortgage broking business pushed up 5% to £2.4m. That took total revenues up 8% to £30m.

Revenues from the lettings segment reflected 10% of organic growth and a full quarter of trading from Douglas & Gordon, which it bought last year. Foxtons said there is still an excess of demand over supply in the London rental market, with increases in rental prices and growth in renewal revenues more than offsetting a decline in new transaction volumes which were constrained by the supply of available rental stock.

In sales, buyer demand was strong and Foxtons said it delivered market share growth "in a positive trading environment". It noted that the first quarter of last year benefited from higher transaction volumes ahead of the original stamp duty relief deadline of 31 March 2021.

"We enter Q2 2022 with an under offer pipeline up 8% year on year. However, Q2 2021 will be a tough comparator with volumes boosted by the extension of stamp duty relief to 30 June 2021 which resulted in a significant number of sales transactions being pulled into the second quarter," it said.

Chief executive Nic Budden said: "I am pleased to report we have had a good start to the year, with all areas of the business trading in line with our expectations. The lettings business has performed strongly, growing both organically and through the contribution from the D&G acquisition. Our sales business has continued to deliver market share growth and entered the second quarter with a healthy under offer pipeline.

"We continue to take cost action and have made good progress with our pipeline of potential lettings portfolio acquisitions."

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