Newcastle LSL Property Services has suffered an 18% fall in revenue after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The group, which owns a number of estate agent and surveying brands, saw its turnover drop from to £214.3m during the first 10 months of the year, down from £262.8m a year earlier.
LSL told investors that the substantial drop in turnover was caused by the Covid-19 crisis but was also impacted by the 2019 ban on tenant fees.
Sales also fell due to the company restructuring its Your Move and Reeds Rain network. The move saw LSL close a number of its smaller branches with overlapping areas and merge them into larger offices.
The estate agency division was the worst hit of the group’s three arms, with turnover dropping by 21% during the period. LSL’s financial services division suffered a 16% dip, while its surveying business shrunk by 15%.
However, the company said that its revenue had improved since the end of the first lockdown in May. Group revenue had falled by 14% year-on-year in June, but this had fallen to a drop of just 5% in October.
David Stewart, LSL’s group chief executive officer, said: “I am pleased to report that the group has taken advantage of the strong rebound in activity levels following the end of the first lockdown, and as a result we now expect to be able to report 2020 group underlying operating profit marginally ahead of 2019.
“We look forward to reporting on our full year results in the early part of 2021, when we will also set out details of the progress we have made on implementing our strategy. I would like once again to place on record my thanks to all our staff for their tremendous support they have given LSL this year.”
Most Read
Although the number of house sales has increases since the end of the May lockdown, a sudden surge of houses being put on the market has led to a shortage of conveyancing capacity. This has led to the sales process taking longer to complete and LSL recording its highest ever residential sales pipeline, which now stands at £24m.
LSL added that it expected to make an underlying operating profit for the full year, but warned that this figure would be stated before the recognition of Covid-19 related net costs.
Following this morning’s announcement LSL’s share price jumped from 230p per share at close of play on November 10, to 241p per share at the time of writing.