Savills sees 2009 'significantly ahead'

Estate agent Savills expects its underlying performance for 2009 to be significantly ahead of its previous forecasts but said it remains cautious about the sustainability of the current performance of UK residential and Asia Pacific transaction markets in 2010.In recent weeks, the group said it has seen continued strength in the transaction markets of the Asia Pacific region at a time when it was anticipating a degree of cooling of the market.It added that it has also seen an increase in transactions in the UK Commercial market which are likely to complete before year end and a higher than expected level of transactions in the UK prime residential market.'The combination of these factors means that we expect Savills' underlying performance for 2009 to be significantly ahead of our previous expectations,' said the group.'However we remain cautious about the sustainability of the current performance of UK residential and Asia Pacific transaction markets in 2010.'