Knight Frank revenues soar as it shrugs off ‘considerable market disruption’
Estate agency Knight Frank has posted a surge in revenues for the year despite having tackled “considerable market disruption” over the last 12 months due to the impact of the Truss-Kwarteng mini-budget.
Revenues for the year ending 31 March 2023 reached £670m up from £665m in the same period last year as the opening of the Elizabeth Line enticed buyers towards office space by improving commuter connections across London.
Knight Frank, which also instructs sales and leases on homes, said that the number of new prospective buyers in London registering in the first quarter of 2023 was 42 per cent higher than the five-year average (excluding 2020) and new sales were up 20 per cent.
“The further the UK housing market gets from September 2022’s mini-budget, the stronger the market becomes,” Knight Frank said.
With bricks-and-mortar retail and leisure still recovering post pandemic, largely due to changing consumer habits, Knight Frank said that consumer markets have held up “far better than anticipated” with positive retail sales growth in the quarter one 5.6 per cent.
The company also said that occupier failure has been limited with some 512 stores impacted so far this year compared to 2,318 in 2022.
“Capital markets, leasing activity and residential sales have all been impacted by global economic conditions over the last 12 months, but Knight Frank has proved its resilience through our unrivalled client base among private capital and institutional investors around the world,” William Beardmore-Gray, senior partner and group chair, Knight Frank, said.
“Our approach of being truly client centric partners enables us to provide high-quality impartial knowledge to our clients to help them thrive whatever the markets.”
He added: “April 2022 to March 2023 was a year of considerable market disruption, and our overall good performance is testament to our global strength, the power of partnership and a great deal of hard work from Knight Frank people across the globe.”