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LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - London-focused estate agentFoxtons said sales could continue to fall this year after aslump in demand pushed down 2016 core earnings by nearly 50percent, due to a property tax hike and the impact of Britain'svote to leave the European Union.
Foxtons, once a symbol of London's surging propertymarket, floated in 2013 ahead of the peak of the boom, and hassince failed more than once to meet market expectations,including as early as 2014.
The firm, known for its chain of coffee shop-style outletsand fleet of Mini cars, said earnings before interest, tax,deprecations and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 46 percent to 25million pounds ($30 million) last year, lower than the 28million forecast by a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts.
Central London property prices have fallen sharply in recentmonths, according to a series of surveys, after a tax hikeintroduced in April hit demand for top-end homes, compounded bythe uncertainty for particularly foreign investors of the Brexitvote.
"(There was a) significant fall in sales volumes immediatelyfollowing the first quarter of 2016," said Chief Executive NicBudden.
"Should current levels of sales activity continue in theshort term, it is likely that 2017 volumes will be below thosein 2016," he said.
Britain's third-largest housebuilder Taylor Wimpey also said on Wednesday that lower selling prices in centralLondon had affected its performance, with the value of itsfull-year order book falling marginally.
While overall revenue fell at Foxtons, fourth-quarterlettings revenue was flat at 13 million pounds, a strong areafor the firm which could be hit by the introduction of a ban onlettings fees announced by the government in November.
($1 = 0.8224 pounds) (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Kate Holton and MarkPotter)