The boss of Belvoir has paid tribute to his franchisees.

CEO Dorian Gonsalves said: “They’re not just performing well to survive – they’re thriving and outperforming the market.

“Hats off to them.”

Yesterday, Belvoir announced its first half results showing an astonishing 48% leap in revenue and gross profits of £6.2m, an increase of £1m on the same period last year.

This was despite no growth in the size of the network, which remains at 300 outlets.

However, Belvoir chief financial offer Louise George said that that in itself is an achievement, given that some of the large corporates have not been able to maintain the size of their networks.

The performance of the franchisees was reflected in the management service fees paid – on average, £14,004 per office, up 5%.

The interim results posted yesterday contain only one month where the tenancy fee ban was live.

However, Gonsalves said that he expects 50% of the lost revenue to be made up within the first nine months.

He also said that Belvoir is not seeing signs of landlords quitting the market, but is seeing rent rises accelerating.

He said: “In recent years, rents have risen quite steadily at around 2% a year. In the next 12 months, I think we’ll see an average rise of about 4%.

“If rents are going up at a faster rate and house prices fall slightly, then we could see more landlords entering the market because yields will be higher.”

Although Belvoir franchisees now offer sales as well as lettings, the business remains very concentrated on the latter.

The split is 81% lettings to 19% of sales.

Gonsalves also said that changes flagged up by RoPA (Regulation of Property Agents working party) in the form of recommendations to the Government are to be welcomed.

He said that regulation of all agents, a mandatory licensing regime and qualifications, are all requirements that Belvoir has been advocating for years.

He said: “They can only benefit our business model, and I hope that they will be brought in sooner and not later.

“The one area which still needs focus is that of self-managing landlords, who are unaware of the need for compliance in many areas.”

Reporting on Belvoir’s results, broker finnCap said it reiterated its price target of 190p for the shares.

Belvoir’s share price rose 5% to 116p yesterday.