LSL Property Services said its network’s brokers increased their total revenue by 3% to £22.6 million in the first six months of the year, adding that “interest rate uncertainty continues to curb refinancing volumes”.
However, listed real estate groups (both in their financial services sectors hold mortgage clubs, TMA and linear and say consultant sales across the UK home loan market are about 5% higher.
In a transaction statement at the end of June, the group said statutory operating profit of its financial services division fell 17 per cent to £2.4 million.
During this period, its number of network companies fell by 5% to 1,084 as it reduced the number of protections.
Cyber protection revenue fell 12% to £6.6 million, “reflecting the impact of strategic repositioning away from the protection of only brokers”.
The group’s financial services division also has a key growth mortgage and protection joint venture established with asset manager Pollen Street.
It said the critical growth now has more than 500 consultants, “making it occupy critical quality to leverage its scale to attract transactions and drive revenue synergy and profitability”.
Since its inception, the joint venture has purchased 19 businesses, including John Charcol and a buyer broker. This also includes two acquisitions completed in the third quarter of this year.
The group said that the share of its key profit growth was about £100,000 during the period, up from a loss of £400,000 a year ago.
During this period, sales in the financial services sector were almost unchanged, reaching £23.5 million.
LSL CEO Adam Castleton, who took over in May, said: “As expected, the stamp duty changes on April 1, 2025 resulted in a surge in housing transactions, leading to improved market activity, while interest rate uncertainty continues to curb refinancing volumes, 10% lower than the previous year.
“We have a large share in every market and have leniently used the expected refinancing activity in the second quarter of this year.
Overall, the group also includes surveys (holding E.SURV) and real estate agencies, with pre-tax profits down 18% and revenues of £11.3 million, up 5% from revenue a year ago to £89.7 million.
