Belvoir said annual profit would beat expectations after the property and financial services group benefited from a booming UK housing market.
Gross profit at the company’s property division, which makes up more than three-quarters of profit, rose 29% in the first 10 months of 2021, Belvoir said in a trading update. Lettings income rose 21% due to “unprecedented” demand for rental properties and sales income increased 65% in the strongest market since 2007.
The financial services business increased gross profit by 39% as its network increased. Business was boosted by mortgages for house purchases and is benefiting from remortgaging with speculation increasing about an increase in interest rates.
“Current substantial pipelines of house sales and written mortgages support our end of year forecasts,” Belvoir said. “Consequently, the board expects that the performance for the full year, in terms of profit before tax, will be ahead of management’s expectations for 2021 and substantially ahead of 2020.”
Belvoir shares rose 6.7% to 255p at 10:23 GMT. The shares have gained 59% in 2021.
Net debt fell to £2.7m from £3.7m at the end of December despite Belvoir spending £4m in March to acquire the Nicholas Humphreys network and £0.6m in July to buy Nottingham Mortgage Services. The Nicholas Belvoir deal helped boost profit at the property division.
Belvoir’s financial year ends on 31 December.
