* Savills profit jumps in first half
* Shares up 4.5%, top gainer on FTSE 250
(Adds CEO comments from call, details, updates share move)
By Chris Peters and Aby Jose Koilparambil
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Real estate adviser Savills lifted
its 2021 outlook on Thursday as Britain's housing boom and the
closing of many deals that were postponed during the height of
the COVID-19 pandemic boosted first-half profit five-fold.
London-based Savills, which said the housing market was
"disproportionately strong", expects its performance for the
year to be meaningfully above previous projections after a
record result from its UK residential business in the six months
to June 30.
Its shares climbed 4.5% to 12.11 pounds by 0912 GMT, leading
gainers on the midcap index.
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, which has 39,000 employees working out of 600
offices across 70 countries, said residential markets,
especially in Britain, remain strong on pandemic-driven
preference for larger houses in most markets worldwide as more
people work from home.
Total pre-tax profit on an underlying basis rose to 66.1
million pounds from 13.2 million pounds last year.
Savills' results follow strong performances by UK
homebuilders Taylor Wimpey Plc, Barratt Developments
and Persimmon which have forecast robust
housing demand even after a tax holiday on property purchases
ends in September.
But the situation in the commercial property market in
Britain and elsewhere was still far from ideal, with Savills
saying office demand was still down 42% compared to pre-COVID
levels.
"H1 2021 saw commercial markets showing varying speeds of
recovery from the pandemic, reflecting different local lockdown
restrictions, rates of vaccination and international travel
restrictions," Savills said.
It said the recovery in the U.S. office market was uneven,
adding companies were both re-occupying existing spaces that had
previously been scheduled for sub-lease and considering
upgrading the quality of space in some places.
Savills Chief Executive Mark Ridley told Reuters that the
challenges from new restrictions and the inevitable return of
the UK residential market activity to normal levels could lead
to a moderate second half in some markets.
"We have got to be realistic that this (re-imposition of
restrictions) can have an impact on market volumes, particularly
commercial transaction volumes," Ridley said.
($1 = 0.7189 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M, Chris Peters and Aby Jose Koilparambil
in Bengaluru; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)