Foxtons this morning reported pre-tax losses of £17.2m for last year.

The loss contrasted with pre-tax profits for 2017 of £6.5m.

Group revenue was down, from £117.6m to £111.5m, and adjusted EBITDA was down from £15.1m to £3.6m. There will be no dividend.

However, the group retained a cash balance of £17.9m at the end of the year.

In what was a bruising year in which Foxtons closed six branches, the company reported a drop in sales from 2,962 to 2,529.

However Foxtons said it had a strong single brand and had maintained its number one market listings position in both sales and lettings. It described the London sales market as being in a “prolonged downturn” and said that Brexit uncertainty is “clearly impacting consumer confidence”.

CEO Nic Budden said that 2018 was “one of the toughest sales markets we have ever had in London”.

He said: “Our performance in 2018 was impacted by a further deterioration in the sales market, with transaction levels falling for another year from their already low levels.

“We are pleased with the lettings business and the investment we made earlier in the year helped to drive a good second half performance.

“We are managing the business for these conditions with a focus on cost control and appropriate investment to improve efficiency and reinforce our customer focused offering.  

“Our brand and its associated characteristics of high service levels, professionalism and delivering for customers, resonates in the market as evidenced by the thousands of customers who continue to trust Foxtons to sell or let their property. We will continue to evolve and enhance our offer in a way that builds on this and maintains our differentiation.

“The outlook for sales remains unchanged with a range of factors, including political uncertainty, likely to contribute to ongoing low transaction levels in the short to medium term. There is momentum in the lettings business and we are pleased with how that business is progressing.

“The overall fundamentals of Foxtons and our market are attractive. London is a desirable global city with a sophisticated and varied residential property market. Our brand is synonymous with London property and we have enhanced our offer in order to reinforce our lettings business and position our sales business for any upturn. We remain confident of our long-term prospects.”

Meanwhile, Foxtons’ reputation as the most dynamic agent of its generation is undented – if Alan Partridge is anything to go by.

On his new Monday night show This Time, he said: “Foxtons! Foxtons the real estate guys. As I said in the production meeting, if we can make this show 10% more Foxtons then we will have something really quite special.”