International real estate agent Savills reinstated its dividend as it reported a sharp fall in full-year profits due to coronavirus lockdowns.
The company on Thursday said underlying pre-tax profits for the year to December 31 fell to £96.6m from £143m as revenue dipped 9% to £1.74bn due to “significantly reduced leasing and capital transaction volumes” across its markets. A dividend of 17p a share was declared.
“Whilst it remains too early to predict the direction of market activity in the near term, global investor demand for secure income, restricted supply and expectations of continued low interest rates underpin the medium and long term attraction of real estate as an asset class,” Savills said in a statement.
“The pace and efficacy of mass vaccination programmes and consequent release from lockdowns and travel restrictions will dictate the rate at which transactional markets recover from here to reflect underlying demand.”
“In general terms, we currently expect transactional activity to remain broadly suppressed in the first half of 2021 with improvement commencing in some individual markets thereafter with the potential for progressive recovery through the balance of the year.”
