Agency group bucks the market thanks to turbocharged ...

The Property Franchise Group has reported a bumper half year of trading with revenue at £13.2m and pre-tax profits up 11 per cent.

Seven new franchisee acquisitions and no fewer than 17 new EweMove territories helped soften the blow of a depressed sales market, as did the acquisition of Michael Searchers Property Management in January this year.

There were record Management Service Fees from TPFG’s franchised network which increased by three per cent, although predictably Lettings MSF stole the show with a 12 per cent rise to £4.8m. Lettings MSF contributed 61 per cent of all MSF in the period; this increased contribution from lettings helped drive recurring revenues up to 65 per cent of total Group revenue.

TPFG’s strong results mirror the bullish performance of another franchise giant, Belvoir, which reported recently.

Gareth Samples, TPFG’s chief executive, says: “It’s another period of record revenue for us, outperforming the market in both lettings and sales. Moreover, with continued focus on costs, slightly down despite the pay increases needed by our employees, we have also set another record for profit before tax.

“Overall, our network’s lettings revenues have grown 12% to represent 61% of total network revenue, offsetting the expected impact of the reduction in UK sales transactions. Pleasingly, this has driven up our recurring revenues to 65% of total revenue.

“We remain extremely well-placed in the current environment and have a substantial growth opportunity to capitalise on. The second half of each calendar year usually generates higher revenues and profits. The second half to date appears to be following that trend so far.

“As a result, the Board remains confident that trading remains in-line with expectations for the full year and this confidence is reflected in the interim dividend for 2023, which I am pleased to report is up 10 per cent to 4.6p.”