Top property agent reports profit fall as partners take pay cut
Knight Frank, London-based high end property agent, suffered a decrease in full year profits of 6.9% to £59.2m from a year ago, and the agent's partners took pay cuts of almost a third, as prime UK property continues to shed value.
The London estate agent, which announced results for the year ended 30 April 2008, said group turnover was up 17% to £333.9m, from £284.4m in 2007, but full year profit was down 6.9% from last year's £63m.
The news comes despite the privately-owned company cutting proprietary partner's earnings by £320,000 from £1.1m last year to £780,000 this year.
Over the last year the number of partners has grown by eight to 46.
The total staff bonus pool this year was £46.4m, down from £51.4m last year. Average staff numbers grew 28% to 3,820 from last year.
November saw the second steepest falls on record for property valued at over £10m (€12m), superseded only by the previous month, which suffered falls of 3.9% in value, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Central London Index.
Prices are now 14.1% lower than last year, and have fallen by a total of 9.3% over the last three months alone.
However, international property sales supported the agent, with overseas turnover up 41% to £112.7m.
Continental Europe and Asia Pacific were strong growth areas, and the agent expanded into The Balearics, Italy and Switzerland, and the US over the last year.
As the results are eight months old, the full impact of the property slump will not yet have been taken into account - although Knight Frank says it is still profitable.
Nick Thomlinson, senior partner and chairman of Knight Frank Group said: "We are now seven months in to our new financial year and the world is a different place. However, in the first half of our new financial year, we have traded profitably...I am reassured that we have a solid business."
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