City shrugs off Foxtons’ sales woes as share price stays resilient

City shrugs off Foxtons’ sales woes as share price stays resilient

Foxtons’ share price held up yesterday despite the firm reporting that revenue from sales had fallen by £7m.

The firm said that it expects EBITDA (profit after costs, depreciation and tax are removed) for last year to have fallen 80%, down from £15m to £3m.

Last July, the firm reported actual pre-tax losses of £2.5m for the first half of 2018.

The shares dipped yesterday by less than 1%, to finish at 53p.

Foxtons said in its trading update that total lettings revenue was around £67m last year, compared with sales revenue of £36m, but did not say how much the fees ban might cost it.

Meanwhile, Belvoir shares rose by over 7% yesterday after it said that the hit to profits from the tenants’ fee ban is expected to be 6% – lower than it had thought.

Like Foxtons, Winkworth also revealed a slump in sales in London, based on reports from nine of its most central London offices. Its report said there had been a 33% collapse in sales in central London in the last quarter of last year. It said this was likely to be the result of Brexit uncertainty, and said that the ongoing problems were likely to lead to a weak first quarter this year.