Savills PLC on Thursday said profit was down in 2023, blaming higher interest rates, ‘geopolitical events’, and ‘uncertainties over the future role of offices’.

The London-based property agent said ‘global market conditions remained extremely subdued for longer than originally anticipated at the start of 2023, and resulted in the group’s Transactional businesses experiencing a significant reduction in profits for the year.’

Savills expects 2023 performance to be in line with the expected range of outcomes, citing a current analyst forecast of underlying pretax profit between £85 million and £97.1 million, with an average of £91.3 million. The upper range of the forecast would be 41% lower than £164.6 million the Savills had reported for 2022.

Looking ahead, Savills expects challenging macro conditions to continue ‘for some time’, adding that most markets ‘appear to be either at, or past, the moment of peak uncertainty, with sentiment turning towards reductions in the cost of capital being likely during 2024.’

Savills will release its 2023 results on March 14.

Savills shares were up 0.1% to 977.00 pence each on Thursday morning in London.

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