In the annual results for Foxtons Group, it said Alexander Hall’s business benefitted from operational improvements and mortgage market conditions.
The group said under Alexander Hall’s new managing director Richard Merrett (pictured), who re-joined the business in January last year, a full operational review was completed, including process upgrades, enhanced cross-selling and a new data suite.
It said this resulted in Alexander Hall’s advisers each seeing an average 11% increase in revenue and an 8% rise in deals.
Alexander Hall’s revenue increased by 6% to £9.3m in 2024. This represented a 2% rise in the number of mortgages arranged, which went up from 5,033 in 2023 to 5,115 last year.
There was also a 5% improvement in the average revenue per transaction at Alexander Hall, from £1,745 to £1,824.
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Foxtons said the higher revenue was due to a growth in new purchase activity, which delivered a higher average fee compared to product transfers. Last year, some 40% of the revenue Alexander Hall generated, £3.7m, was from non-cyclical refinance activity while the remainder, £5.6m, was from purchase activity.
Alexander Hall contributed £4m in revenue to the wider business, making up 43% of its overall margin. This was up from a contribution of £3.4m the year before, which accounted for 38.8% of the margin.
Profit more than doubles
Foxtons Group posted a profit before tax of £17.5m, a 121% increase on the £7.9m profit seen in 2024. Meanwhile, the group’s revenue rose by 11% year-on-year to £163.9m.
The group also returned to cash generation, it said, with £9.8m of net free cash flow compared to £100,000 the year before. It said this represented underlying cash generation and normalised working capital movements.
Foxtons Group maintains a ‘respectful’ and ‘inclusive’ culture
Guy Gittins, chief executive of Foxtons Group, said 2024 was “another strong year” for the business and its financial services division “continued to provide the steady, recurring revenues which underpin group profitability”.
Seeming to respond to recent allegations of sexual harassment and racism across the business reported by Bloomberg last week, Gittins added: “Estate agency is a people-first business, and maintaining an engaging, respectful and inclusive culture is of the utmost importance to us.
“We are focused on creating an environment which attracts, motivates and retains a diverse team of talent, that can together deliver excellent customer outcomes. Although significant progress has been made over the last two years, including the introduction of mandatory annual respect and inclusion training, strengthened equity, diversity and inclusion policies, and enhanced whistleblowing and speak up processes, there remains more to do.”
He continued: “This is particularly important to me and we remain steadfast in our commitment to an inclusive, professional and respectful culture and we will continue to seek further improvement and progress.
“Changes made to date are supporting our transformation, including: a 25% increase in female managers over the last two years; improving employee engagement; and a 12% increase in employee retention rates since 2022 as new career development and diversity programmes take effect. Our latest employee engagement survey, indicated that 87% of employees believe Foxtons values diversity and builds diverse teams, and 81% of employees recommend Foxtons as a great place to work, 8% higher than equivalent businesses in the UK. These initiatives are particularly important to me and while progress has been made, we recognise there is more we can and should do. We remain steadfast in our commitment to an inclusive, professional and respectful culture and we will continue to seek further improvements and progress.”
Gittins concluded: “After a good start to 2025, we are well positioned to deliver another year of growth and are on track to deliver against the medium-term growth targets I set out in March 2023. I look forward to setting out details of the next stage of our growth plan to investors at a capital markets event in Q2 2025.”
