Connells reports healthy profits despite Covid

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Connells Group Limited, the estate and letting agency headquartered in Leighton Buzzard, and a subsidiary of Skipton Building Society, today announced pre-tax profits of £26.2m (2018: £28.9m) in its interim results statement for the six months ended 30 June 2019.

Connells Group is a multi-branch estate and letting agency with around 600 branches across the UK, trading under multiple brand names including: Connells, Sequence, Allen & Harris, Bagshaws Residential, Barnard Marcus, Brown & Merry, Fox & Sons, Jones & Chapman, Manners & Harrison, Roger Platt, Shipways, Swetenhams, William H Brown, Sharman Quinney, Peter Alan, Burchell Edwards, Gascoigne Halman, Hatched, Rook Matthews Sayer and Kevin Henry.

These market leading profits are only slightly down on last year represent a strong performance coming against a backdrop of a UK housing market that continues to be subdued and where overall transaction numbers remain well below the same period in 2018.

The Group’s lettings agency in particular increased total revenue, supported by its mortgage services, land, new homes, conveyancing and survey and valuation divisions all producing positive results in the period.

The Group’s estate agency business was 8% below the comparative period in 2018, reflecting the significant fall away in the market in the first half this year, but total income was remarkably consistent with last year at £215.0m (2018: £214.9m).

Connells Group claims to be “the most successful estate agency business in the UK on a number of measures – its profitability, it sells the most houses and has the largest market share.”

Group CEO David Livesey says:

“We are proud of our ability to respond to challenging market conditions and to have produced such good results showing the strength, resilience and diversification of our business.

“The immense contribution of our people has again been a key driver in our success.

“Our people remain our biggest differentiator and greatest single asset, and we continue to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. The vast majority of our middle and senior management have been with us for many years and have experienced all types of markets in the past which is, again, proving invaluable. Their continuity and experience provides the backbone of our business”

The Group remains financially strong with no debt and continues to look for investment and acquisition opportunities.

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How To Re-Purpose Defunct Commercial Buildings

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Live 90 Minute FREE Commercial Property Training Session hosted by Ranjan Bhattacharya, Property Investor & Developer with over 30 years of experience.

A unique set of circumstances are coming together right now to create a perfect cocktail of opportunity for savvy property investors.

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BREAKING: Scotland to extend its evictions ban for another six months until March next year

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Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that subject to parliamentary approval, her government intends to extend the country’s evictions ban until March 2021.

Like the UK, back in March the Scottish government brought in emergency legislation to ban all evictions within the social and private rental markets until September but, unlike legislators over the border, will now extended the ban for another six months.

Welcoming the move, Shelter’s Scottish Director Alison Watson says her organisation welcomes the move to give tenants greater protection from losing their homes as the coronavirus-led economic downturn continues.

“This will give breathing space to thousands of people who’ve been hit hard by this pandemic, so they have a fair chance to deal with the work and money problems that have been forced on them,” she says.

“Today’s decision is a big win for tenants and for Shelter Scotland’s campaign. We want to thank our supporters who emailed their MSPs to demand action, and key organisations across Scotland who pushed for this outcome.

“This shows that when we work together we can win real change. We’ll keep fighting to stop homelessness and deliver safe, affordable homes for everyone who needs them.”

The announcement by Sturgeon follows a sustained campaign by Shelter to extend the ban, including an open letter sent to her housing minister Kevin Stewart, signed by a coalition of other housing and welfare organisations.

LandlordZONE has approached the Scottish Association of Landlords for comment, which we will add to this story when it is issued.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – BREAKING: Scotland to extend its evictions ban for another six months until March next year | LandlordZONE.

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SURVEY: Landlords report 87% of tenants paying rent and only 3% in arrears

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Landlords have reported that over 95% of private tenants are paying their rent OR have made arrangements with their landlord to lower or defer payments during the pandemic.

The independent poll commissioned by the NRLA found that among the landlords canvassed, 87% of their tenants have paid their rent as normal throughout the pandemic.

A further 8% said had agreed a reduced rent, a rent-free period or made some other agreement with their landlord or letting agent.

And only 3% of tenants are building up arrears and are unable or unwilling to repay them – with less than a third of those in arrears or two percent of tenants, being served with a possession notice.

Further evidence that landlords are working to keep tenants in their homes comes from a separate survey which shows that 55 per cent of landlords who have granted at least one tenant a deferred rent or rent free period plan to absorb the losses from their own savings.

The NRLA is also calling on calling for the Government to introduce guaranteed hardship loans to help tenants in England who are in arrears due to the pandemic.

Ahead of the winding down of the furlough scheme, it argues that – similar to the Tenant Saver Loan Scheme launched yesterday by the Welsh Government – such loans should be provided to eligible tenants, interest-free and ring-fenced solely to cover rent payments.

Chief executive Ben Beadle says eviction isn’t inevitable where people have struggled to pay their rent due to COVID-19. “Those who argue otherwise are stoking needless anxiety for tenants,” he says.

“To offer security to tenants and landlords badly hit during the lockdown we are calling on the Government to introduce a tenant loan scheme to help pay off arrears built due to the coronavirus.”

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – SURVEY: Landlords report 87% of tenants paying rent and only 3% in arrears | LandlordZONE.

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New Welsh £8 million Tenant Saver Loan scheme for PRS only

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Loans to pay off rent arrears built during the Covid -19 pandemic will now be available to tenants in Wales following a campaign by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).

The new £8 million Tenant Saver Loan scheme

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Welsh government package of support for tenants including loan scheme

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The Welsh Government has provided a package of support to make sure as many people as possible facing financial hardship as a result of the coronavirus pandemic remain in their private rented homes, sustaining tenancies and avoiding eviction due to rent arrears.

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Former TDS boss joins Hamilton Fraser to head up new landlord and agent services

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Former Director of Dispute Resolution for TDS, Mike Morgan, has joined Hamilton Fraser as its Legal Division Manager, heading up the organisation’s newest services, HF Assist and PRS mediation.

Morgan played a founding role in the establishment of tenancy deposit protection scheme The Dispute Service (TDS) in 2006, working at the company until April last year.

A lawyer by profession, Morgan found early on in his career that he enjoyed consumer law and alternative dispute resolution. 

His experience led him to believe there must be a better way to solve disputes than spending extortionate amounts of time and money going to court. Morgan went from private practice to trading standards in Hertfordshire, where he ran their consumer advice service, helping to resolve disputes between consumers and businesses.

From there, Mike went on to be Chief Conciliation Officer at the Furniture Ombudsman, before joining TDS in its infancy in April 2006. Mike worked for TDS for 13 years, becoming its expert in dispute resolution and bringing many innovations to its work.

Morgan says his focus at Hamilton Fraser is to empower more agents to ask for help and improve their standards to avoid disputes arising.

Avoiding issues

“Over the years, I have seen countless examples where agents have gone wrong and more often than not, avoiding the issue could have been so easy.

“One of the biggest challenges letting agents have faced over the last 10 years is the constant changing of legislation.

“This is particularly true of those smaller businesses, sole traders and single branch operators who simply don’t have limitless budgets and access to their own in-house legal departments. 

“In my experience, these agents often avoid asking for help or checking their processes for fear they are doing something wrong and the possible implications that may have.”

Two new services

He will also be running HF Assist, which provides support on day to day lettings matters that affect agents’ businesses, and the Property Redress Scheme’s new tenancy mediation service which encourages landlords, letting agents and tenants to find a resolution over tenancy disputes to avoid court.

“It’s great to see this new service making such a positive impact,” says Morgan.

”Mediation is more important than ever and our service is already helping landlords reach out to tenants to understand their financial position before taking possession action through the courts.”

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Courts may adjourn possession cases without Covid-19 impact assessment

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Over 95% of private tenants are paying their rent or have made an arrangement with their landlord to pay a lower rent or defer payment during the pandemic according to a new survey of tenants out today.

Independent polling for the National Residential Landlords Association finds that 87% of private tenants have paid their rent as normal throughout the pandemic.

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