The board is very encouraged by trading in Q1 with our franchise model proving that, even in a challenging year for the property market, it has the resilience to overcome and indeed benefit from changes in the sector
How is it doing:
Belvoir Lettings has renamed itself as Belvoir Group to reflect its diversification away from being a single franchisor of residential lettings agents.
The company said the new name will better represent the business as a multi franchiser that operates three property franchises offering residential sales and lettings as well as a network of financial advisers offering mortgage and other property related financial services.
Belvoir said in first-quarter trading update in May that it has been outperforming the three key markets in which it operates and is confident of meeting market expectations for the full year.
What the boss says:
"The board is very encouraged by trading in Q1 with our franchise model proving that, even in a challenging year for the property market, it has the resilience to overcome and indeed benefit from changes in the sector,” said Dorian Gonsalves, the chief executive officer.
Inflection points:
In the first quarter, the company achieved year-on-year growth of 6.3% in Management Service Fees (MSF) from lettings, well ahead of the reported 1.2% growth in the rental index of 1.2%, Growth of 10.3% from sales MSF compared with a drop of 1.5% in property transactions. Net banking from financial services (on a like-for-like basis) was up 20%.
In the year to date Belvoir's Assisted Acquisitions programme has supported six franchisees to acquire a local competitor, adding £1.2mln of network revenue, nearly 800 managed properties and over £100,000 a year of recurring MSF.
Belvoir said there are still £2.0ml of deals currently with lawyers and a strong pipeline of further opportunities to underpin the group's growth target for 2019.
Blue Sky:
The company is looking to build on a strong performance in 2018 when profit before tax rose 40% to £5.5mln from £3.9mln the year before, continuing an unbroken string of 22 years of profit growth.
Belvoir has said acquisition and diversification continue to be integral to the group's growth strategy. During 2018, franchisees completed on 26 transactions under the Belvoir-assisted acquisitions programme, increasing the acquired annualised network revenue to £6.9mln; the target for the year had been £6.6mln.
