Savills confident of hitting full-year targets despite political turmoil

(Sharecast News) - Trading at Savills has so far been in line with expectations, the property group said on Wednesday, despite political and economic uncertainly rattling markets. Updating investors at its annual general meeting, the FTSE 250 firm said that for the year to date, its transaction business had maintained "strong" market shares, despite volumes in some areas being "subdued as a result of political and economic uncertainty".Savills said trading in the UK had been "resilient, despite increased political uncertainty," adding: "In our residential transaction business, there has been a healthy increase in indicators which are normally a precursor to increased market activity."Of particular note is a strong double digit increases in new buyers registered, and year-on-year increase in revenue in the prime central London market."However, its commercial transaction business has seen volumes across the UK decline, while development activity was "relatively subdued".And the firm sounded a cautious note for the rest of the year: "The first few months typically represent a relatively modest proportion of the expected outturn for the full year. In the UK market, there remains significant investor demand but commercial transaction activity in the next few months may continue to be overshadowed by the prolonged uncertainly over Brexit, the exact impact of which is difficult to determine at present."Overseas, its Asia Pacific, North America, Continental Europe and the Middle East markets were all trading in line with expectations, Savills said, with a number of countries, including Hong Kong, mainland China, Ireland and France, seeing year-on-year revenue growth.Savills added: "We expect some strengthening of activity in certain overseas markets and despite greater weighting towards the second half than last year, we continued to anticipate overall performance for 2019 to be in line with expectations."