Savills sees deals slow after Q1 ‘comfortably’ outperforms

Savills says revenue from investment and leasing deals rose year-on-year during the first quarter but cautioned that activity has since slowed in a period of geopolitical uncertainty. In a stock market notice ahead of today’s annual general meeting, the agency said trading over the first quarter of the year is in line with expectations and “comfortably” ahead of the same period a year ago. Chief executive Mark Ridley, who will hand over his role to chief financial officer Simon Shaw next year, said: “We have had a good start to the year with performance comfortably ahead of the prior year, reflecting progressive recovery in most markets. The current macro-level uncertainty is clearly having a near term impact on transactional activity, as investors and corporates digest the potential effects of recent events. However, I am confident the underlying trajectories for our transactional businesses are substantially improved year-on-year.” Global capital transaction revenue was up by 7% in Q1, driven by activity in EMEA, and the firm noted “renewed investor interest” in prime core office stock across Europe. Leasing revenues have jumped by a fifth, while most prime residential markets have remained “resilient”. “The uncertainty created by recent macro-economic and geopolitical events has resulted in a short term slow-down in global transaction activity, which we expect to recover as sentiment becomes more certain,” the firm said. Less transactional businesses including property management, investment management and consultancy have performed in line with expectations. “We expect that the impact of tariffs on the execution of transactions in Q2 means that Savills H1 performance may be largely similar to last year, however we anticipate continued improvement in market conditions through the second half of the year,” the firm said.