Connells has announced an 85% rise in profits in the first half of this year – and made it clear that its acquisition plans mean it is ready to snap up plenty of other agency businesses, both large and small.

It has also revealed the creation of 1,000 new jobs in the last three years, with at least another 500 to come by the end of next year.

The announcement follows similar spectacular results from both Rightmove and Countrywide – making this a golden time for the UK property industry.

Connells Group, owned by the Skipton Building Society, made pre-tax profits of £42.6m in the first six months of 2014, compared with £23m in the same period in 2013.

Connells’ estate agency business recorded a 20% increase in property sales, with demand heavily outweighing supply – although Connells did record a 7% rise in instructions.

Connells’ mortgage business was also up 7%, while its lettings side enjoyed a 26% rise.

The group, which includes Sequence, also increased activity in its survey and valuation division by 27%.

Connells says its current sales pipeline is 26% higher than this time last year.

Connells’ results also emphasise its commitment to further expansion.

Notably, this includes the lettings business – Connells calls this one of the largest lettings expansion projects every undertaken by a UK agent.

It plans to double the size of its lettings network by the end of 2015 through a combination of branch openings and acquisitions.

Stephen Shipperley, group executive chairman of Connells, said: “Improvements in the housing market have, of course, played a part in our results.

“However, a more significant proportion of our profits has been achieved on the back of the group’s investments in recent years, all of which are now providing a return to the business.

“We remain committed to expanding the Group, especially our residential estate agency, lettings, mortgage services and surveying operations.

“In addition to internal expansion, Connells has already acquired five local businesses since the start of the year as well as making a significant investment in leading regional estate agency business Peter Alan in Wales.”

The lettings expansion programme kicked off in 2011, and to date, some 130 lettings branches have launched with a further 32 planned before the end of this year and 75 for 2015.

Shipperley said: “This multi-million pound expansion programme will create over 500 new jobs.

“As a consequence of our expansion in estate agency, mortgage services, lettings and surveying, we have created over 1,000 new jobs over the last three years and have provided our staff with increased career opportunities within the business.

“We are very positive about the outlook for our business.

“We remained profitable throughout the financial crisis and continued to invest during the downturn.

“The investment programme is far from over and we are keen to do more. Our acquisition of Peter Alan illustrates Connells’ appetite to grow the business.

“We are open to new opportunities to acquire both sales and lettings businesses, and have significant resources available to make similar acquisitions in the future.”