Savills soars as foreign buyers mop up London deals

The City waded into Savills today as a flood of overseas cash seeking property bargains in post-Brexit London put the agent on course for a huge profit windfall.

The shares jumped 54.1p, or 8%, to 744.6p as a strong finish to last year meant full-year profits “will be meaningfully ahead of our previous expectations”.

Savills put the profit surge down to a glut of interest from overseas in the London commercial property market since Brexit, thanks to the sharp 17% fall in the pound. The agent also grabbed market share from its rivals.

The interest of foreign buyers also extended to the top end of the London housing market, which showed “similar currency-related drivers of investment activity”.

That largely offset a falling number of housing deals. Asian and European markets also outperformed.

Savills struck a cautious note for this year: “Against the backdrop of heightened uncertainty over global economic prospects and rising bond yields, we expect a tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in many markets.”

Analysts marked up previous expectations of £122 million in profit. Broker Numis said: “This is an exceptional performance against a very variable global economic and political backdrop.”