Knight Frank has reported a 4.5% decline in profit to £145.7m in its results for the year to March 2017.
Group turnover was up by 3.3% to £476.2m, but pension liabilities, staff and operating costs increased.
Senior partner and group chairman Alistair Elliot said profit declined because of an investment in staff.
Elliot said: “With Brexit and the impact of recent stamp duty changes in the UK and political and economic uncertainties around the world causing hesitancy in our markets, there were moments when the outlook was bleak.
“To have increased our turnover and maintained our profit levels at a time of significant investment in developing our business is a great result for which our teams can be justly proud.”
The agent said its growth was driven by its businesses outside of the UK. About half of its turnover comes from the UK and half from overseas.
In the UK market, it said commercial transaction volumes declined after the referendum, but activity has been increasing since the beginning of 2017, albeit with ongoing disparity between sectors.
It said residential markets have converged over the past year, with regional performance slowing to match that of London, though the capital had seen an uptick in trading since the start of the calendar year.
Elliot said the UK side of the business had a record year for new homes, residential lettings, finance, industrial and investment management. Outside of the UK, he said Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, the Middle East, Czech Republic and Poland all had a record year.
“There is no doubting the significant uncertainties presented by the current geopolitical environment. That said, uncertainty drives change and the dynamic real estate world is presenting great opportunities centred on changing work patterns, differing lifestyle choices and a fitter, ageing population, increasingly gathering in key cities around the world,” said Elliot.
“Retirement living, distribution, hotels, healthcare and the private rental sector are just a few markets where the dynamics are greatest and which, combined, will continue to encourage a much greater need for flexible, mixed-used developments and to which we are responding.”
Key performance highlights for the year included:
- Valued $1.3tn in assets globally in 2016
- Appointed by Amazon to work on office services and project management assignments in Beijing
- Acted on behalf of ARA Asset Management to buy the Southgate Complex in Melbourne, Australia for $440m – the largest deal in Australia in 2016
- Acted for L’Oréal to consolidate offices in one location comprising 101,000 sq ft in Sun Hung Kai Centre, Wanchai – the largest office leasing transaction on Hong Kong Island during 2017.
- Acted for HB Reavis in the £300m sale of 33 Central, EC4, to Wells Fargo for its European HQ, the first major central London deal signed after the Brexit vote
- Acted on behalf of Battersea Power Station Development Company to secure Apple prelet of 500,000 sq ft for its new London HQ
- Knight Frank Finance brokered more than £2bn in mortgages over the past year, with loans ranging from £25,000 to £135m.
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