Disastrous Truss Budget still hurting market says lea...

Belvoir Group is continuing its long term success record but warns that the Liz Truss mini-Budget is still having a detrimental impact on the industry.

Belvoir is reporting record revenues of £33.5m last year but warns that its profitability is likely to fall “slightly below” 2022 levels over the next 12 months.

Ahead of its full-year results announcement, the firm is telling shareholders that it’s seen a 13 per cent increase in revenue, boosted by the acquisitions of TIME Mortgage Services and hybrid agency Mr and Mrs Clarke.

Revenue from Belvoir’s financial services division increased by 24 per cent to £17.9m during the period, while its property division notched up £15.5m, an increase of one per cent.

Chief executive Dorian Gonsalves says: “Our property franchisees and financial services advisers are highly motivated entrepreneurs who continue to demonstrate the ability to make the most of the opportunities presented in all market conditions.

“Our property franchisees benefit from significant recurring lettings revenue that contributes around 56 per cent of Group gross profit and our financial services advisers have substantial client books from which to offer remortgages and other financial products, so are not entirely reliant on new mortgage business.”

Gonsalves adds: “Whilst we anticipate continuing challenging market conditions in 2023, we remain confident that the resilience and diversity of our business model will enable the Group to perform well against the market as a whole.”

The trading statement continues: “The Autumn statement reversed many of the fiscal initiatives proposed in the mini budget, which somewhat reassured borrowers and lenders.

“Whilst the level of sales instructions and mortgage applications to date in 2023 have shown signs of improvement compared with Q4 2022, the recovery is expected to build slowly over the year.

“Given the lead time from instruction to completion of a house sale and from mortgage application to drawdown can be up to five months, the improvement in activity in H1 is not likely to flow through into financial performance until H2. As a result, profitability in 2023 as a whole is likely to be slightly below 2022 and is expected to return to an upward trend in 2024.”