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* Profit jumps for the first half at 160-year old Savills
* Says housing market "disproportionately strong"
* Shares up 5.3%
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Real estate adviser Savills lifted
its 2021 outlook on Thursday as robust demand in the UK
residential market and the closing of many deals that were
postponed during the height of the pandemic boosted first-half
profit five-fold.
Savills, which has 39,000 employees working out of 600
offices across 70 countries, said it expects its performance for
the year to be meaningfully above its previous projections after
a record result from its UK residential business in the six
months to June 30. Its shares were up 5.3% by 0800 GMT.
The 160-year old company said underlying profit in its UK
residential transaction business jumped to 20.5 million pounds
($28.5 million) from 1.6 million pounds a year earlier, when the
pandemic "all but eliminated" the key spring sales season.
Savills said residential markets, especially in Britain,
have continued strongly as the pandemic has seen a drive for
space in most markets worldwide. It added that the housing
market has been "disproportionately strong".
Total pre-tax profit on an underlying basis rose to 66.1
million pounds from 13.2 million pounds last year.
($1 = 0.7189 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M and Chris Peters in Bengaluru; Editing
by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
