In a trading update, Foxtons confirmed that mortgage revenues for the 12 months grew by three per cent. It noted that while there had been lower volumes of new mortgage deals, these were outweighed by strong growth in remortgages.
Outside of its mortgage division, the results were less positive for Foxtons.
Group revenue for the full year totalled £107m, down four per cent from the £111.5m for 2018. Revenue from its lettings work dropped two per cent to £66m, while sales revenues crashed by ten per cent to around £33m.
Foxtons argued that transaction volumes were damaged by “ongoing political uncertainty”, particularly at the higher end of the market.
During December, the firm closed four branches which were underperforming, while it has also taken an impairment charge on a number of low profitability branches. These will results in a one-off charge of around £6m.
Nic Budden, chief executive officer at Foxtons, said that with the uncertainty of the general election removed, there were early signs that the sales market will improve this year, with the sales pipeline already ahead of where it was this time last year.
He continued: “It is, however, too early to predict how the market will behave during the year with structural issues like affordability and stamp duty continuing to act as a brake on sales volumes. Competition in the lettings market remains fierce.”
