LSL, whose estate agency brands include Reeds Rains, Your Move and Marsh & Parsons,  announced spectacular half-year results this morning.

Its revenue for the first six months of this year stood at £139.8m, up 18% on the same period last year, with pre-tax profits of £31.4m, up 275% from the £8.4m it made in the first half of last year.

The group said there had been an “excellent” performance by its estate agency division. Revenue was up 20%, to £108.6m, and had an operating margin of 11.3%. Residential sales were up 27% compared with a year ago.

Lettings revenue of £27.7m was also up – by 12%.

Excluding Marsh & Parsons, profit per branch was up 43%, to reach £38,000 on a 12-month rolling basis. The results reveal that the ambition is to achieve profitability of £50,000 per branch.

Marsh & Parsons also put on a strong performance, with revenue up 19%, to £16.1m and operating profits of £3.2m. LSL said it plans to open three more Marsh & Parsons branches this year.

The group’s  share price has been falling and ended yesterday at 364p. At the beginning of June the shares were over 430p, and were at a peak of 480p in March. Today, the City remained unimpressed by LSL’s performance.

Last week, both Countrywide and Connells announced good results – and, despite their size differences, similar profits.

Countrywide, with some 1,400 branches, made pre-tax profits of £37m. Connells, with 500 branches, made pre-tax profits of £42m. In comparison, LSL has 533 branches and made a profit of £31.4m. However, 130 LSL branches are franchises, whereas Connells and Countrywide do not have franchisee businesses.