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(Alliance News) - Savills PLC on Wednesday hailed an "extraordinarily" strong final trading period with the company's full year performance now forecast very significantly ahead of expectations.
The London-based estate agent highlighted particularly strong performances in the UK and Asia Pacific regions alongside improved performances in Continental Europe & the Middle East and North America; both of which have more than eliminated the losses of 2020.
All Savills businesses had exceeded their forecasts despite the impact of renewed pandemic-related restrictions in many locations, the company explained.
The property expert said it now expects underlying pretax profit for 2021 to be very significantly ahead of the upper end of its previous range of expectations, though chose to keep its financial year 2022 guidance unchanged.
"Despite the backdrop of pandemic-related uncertainty in 2021, the UK performed exceptionally well across all business lines," Savills said.
"Currently there is a definite shortage of sale stock, so despite outperformance in 2021, our expectation of a moderation of activity in 2022 remains intact."
Looking to the year ahead, noted inflationary pressures will result in employment costs increasing at the highest rate for many years and an anticipated normalisation in discretionary costs.
In respect of trading revenue, Savills said it anticipated some normalisation of commercial capital transaction volumes and a moderation of activity levels in some residential markets, particularly in the UK.
Savills shares were up 4.6% to 1,380.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
Full year results will be published on March 10.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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