Higher interest rates and inflation affect Savills annual returns

Tuesday 21 March 2023

Savills has announced a fall in reported profits during what's been called a "challenging" 2022 with those same challenges expected to continue through 2023 across all of its operating areas.

While Group revenue was up 7% to £2.3 billion, the profit before tax was down 18%.

Mark Ridley, Group Chief Executive, said: "Performance in 2022 was slightly ahead of our expectations despite challenging markets. More importantly, perhaps, the Group's performance was substantially ahead of the 2019 'pre-COVID' comparative period. The strength of our less transactional businesses, primarily Consultancy and Property Management, helped underpin the Group's performance overall."

Pictured: A snapshot from the Group Annual Report.

He continued: "In the year ahead, challenging macro conditions are expected to continue with inflation and interest rates remaining in focus for some time. As a result, the speed at which individual investment markets adjust to the cost of debt is uncertain, although certain markets, such as the UK, are recalibrating faster than in the past, and will be helped by the lack of development supply and an overall trend to sustainability. We would also expect that the release of COVID restrictions in Greater China paves the way for progressive improvement in real estate markets in the region.

"We have started 2023 broadly in line with our expectations. However, it is clear that, at this stage, predictions for the full year are characterised by a wide range of possible outcomes; we believe that H1 2023 will be more challenging than its 2022 comparative; however, we expect progressive improvement through the second half of the year. 2024 should see more positive conditions for real estate market activity and Savills is both retaining its bench strength and investing in advance of such recovery."  

Pictured: Some of the Savills Guernsey team.

Tony Rowbotham, Head of Office for Savills Guernsey (pictured top), commented: “We have had an extremely busy 12 months, with success across the commercial investment sector as well as in open and local market residential sales and lettings.

"Pleasingly we have also been able to grow and strengthen our workforce across several key service lines including commercial property management, building project consultancy, residential sales and residential lettings.

"We are always keen to attract and retain top talent within core areas of our business and these appointments ensure the evolution of our team continues and the service we are able to offer across the island is further enhanced.

"I must also thank our clients, both those who were new to us in 2022 but also those who return to us time and time again. We look forward to continuing this success and further strengthening our position as we head into the rest of the year.”