Savills trades in line with expectations

Real estate advisor Savills traded in line with expectations in the first four months of the year with strong growth seen across the Asia Pacific region.

The company said Asia achieved substantial improvements year-on-year.

However, Hong Kong will be affected by the latest round of government control measures, with volumes falling by 30%. The doubling of stamp duty on commercial transactions in the city has also reduced the aggregate value of business since the new measures were implemented in March.

Nevertheless, improvements in trading in other parts of the region, particularly Australia and Japan, are expected to help mitigate the financial impact of reduced transactional volumes in Hong Kong.

In the UK, the company continued to maintain a significant share of the prime central London investment and leasing markets.

The increasing interest of overseas investors in central London assets resulted in more domestic investors looking to opportunities in the UK's principal regional cities.

"Whilst it is still too early to be definitive, if this trend continues we expect to see some improvements in our regional UK business through the coming period," the company said.

The prime residential market in central London continued to perform well with year-on-year increases in volume and value.

The US business has also shown improved performance in comparison with the same period last year and Cordea Savills, the group's investment management business, met expectations.

"As previously indicated, we expect that our trading result to date will result in a stronger first half performance than in 2012 with the full year outlook in line with our expectations," the group said.

Shares rose 0.92% to 603p at 11:26 Wednesday.

RD