Franchise group delivers 10% boost from lettings services

Lettings franchisees under the Belvoir banner delivered the group an additional 10 per cent management service fees last year according to an upbeat trading statement.

The lettings fees totalled £8.2m of which £0.3m related to new names in the Belvoir stable - the Nicholas Humphreys acquisition and newly franchised Lovelle offices.  

The underlying lettings increase of around six per cent reflected a strong lettings market, says the agency. 

The demand for more space and a return of young people to UK cities as offices re-opened post lockdown resulted in insufficient supply of available properties to rent and as such rents on new tenancies were seen to rise by around eight per cent.

Shareholders have been told that overall, Belvoir Group revenue is up 36 per cent to £29.6m - a record level - and consequently the company expects that the financial performance for the year, including profit before tax, will be comfortably ahead of management's expectations.

Including both sales and lettings, Belvoir says 2021 was one of the busiest years in recent times for estate agency, with residential transactions up 41 per cent on 2020 and 22 per cent ahead of the six-year average to 2019. 

In addition to achieving strong growth in the underlying business, the group expanded both its property and financial services networks through the acquisitions of Nicholas Humphreys, a specialist student lettings franchise, and Nottingham Mortgage Services, the mortgage arm of The Nottingham Building Society.

Revenue from the financial services division increased significantly by 49 per cent to £14.4m.

Dorian Gonsalves, Belvoir’s chief executive, comments: "All of the Group's business units performed exceptionally well in 2021, ensuring that our franchisees and advisers were best-placed to take advantage of a strong property market.  

“In addition, the board furthered Belvoir's successful growth strategy through two corporate acquisitions to enlarge our franchise and mortgage adviser networks.

"With our significant recurring lettings revenue stream and our substantial financial services client base to draw upon during what is currently a strong market for remortgages, we believe the group is well insulated from what could be a more challenging market in 2022.  

“Given the resilience and diversity of our business model, we remain confident that we will continue to perform well relative to the market as a whole.  Meanwhile, the board continues to identify suitable acquisition targets to support continued growth and enhance shareholder value still further.”