Acquisitive property group sees income rise
Hunters property group, the largest estate agent franchise in the country has reported a strong end to the financial year ending 31 December 2019.
Over the period the group, saw income from its franchise and owned branch network rise by 7%, and opened 20 new branches.
Despite this positive story, Kevin Hollinrake, chairman of Hunters and MP for Thirsk and Malton highlighted that the firm’s ten group owned sales offices had underperformed , with income falling by £1.6m over the three years since 2016.
The business’ performance is even more positive as it faced challenges over the last 12 months including the ban on tenant fees, which in 2018 generated almost half a million pounds.
Hollinrake was keen to point to the future of the firm being different, stating: “Our future is in providing technology and support services to our franchise network, which continues to grow and excel.”
The success of this approach, he said, is highlighted by the example of the independent agents who converted to Hunters in 2016 and have grown their contribution to network income by 10% over the three years to December 2019, with those which have been with the brand four five years have grown revenue by a quarter.
The continued success of the franchises, which recorded an income of £42.3m in 2019 led to the firm reporting an EBITDA adjusted for the impact of IFRS16 of £2.76m – a 21% increase on FY 2018.
Hollinrake however cautions on the future, as a result of the impact of Covid-19 which saw all of Hunters branches close on 24 March, although the business remained open and worked remotely.
He said: “The market will remain challenging whilst the fallout from Covid-19 unwinds and it is too early to assess the scale and timing of Covid-19’s impact. We are pleased to announce however the securing of a £3.5m Covid-19 facility to ensure we can continue driving the business through these unchartered times.”
Glynis Frew, chief executive officer at Hunters added: “Covid-19 has significantly altered our outlook for 2020 although, having said that we remain ahead of where we had expected to be in lettings and in mitigating the effect on tenant fees. Though it is pleasing to see the lockdown partially lifted it is too early to forecast the impact on the wider economy.”
As a result of the pandemic the firm has confirmed it will not propose a dividend for this year.
Looking ahead however the business believes as a result of changes in Government legislation there is “a rich vein of opportunities to expand our branch network” as independent firms seek to benefit from a network.
