Countrywide has said that with house sales down 6% year on year, it is to continue investing in its rental business.

However, in a pre-close trading update for the year to December 31, the group said it expects its performance for last year to be “modestly” better than it had previously expected.

The update gave no figures.

In November, Countrywide issued a warning on profits, saying that housing transactions were running at lower levels than had been expected. As a result, it said it would not hit its full-year profits.

Yesterday, the firm did not say whether it will now hit target, but did say that “overall” across both its residential and commercial businesses it had “achieved an encouraging performance” in the last quarter of 2015.

However, in the update with a mixed message, it said both its Retail [estate agency and letting agency] and London business units “continue to be impacted by current housing market trends with the latest market data showing transaction volumes running 6% below the previous year”.

The update went on: “Notwithstanding the proposed changes to buy-to-let Stamp Duty and mortgage interest relief, we still see the private rented sector performing a key role in the overall residential property market.

“Accordingly, we continue to invest in this part of our business to provide the foundations for the next stage of our growth.

“Financial Services continues to outperform the market, with profits in 2015 ahead of 2014. Strong performances from our commercial and surveyors operations will deliver profit growth in 2015 for our Business to Business Unit.

“The Group now expects that underlying EBITDA for 2015 will show a modest improvement on our previous expectations.

“It is too early to predict what the trend in residential transactions will show in 2016, although approved mortgage volumes including owner occupier in recent months have been ahead of the previous year, which is a positive indicator.

“Both our Retail and London business units enter 2016 with transaction pipelines ahead of the previous year.”

Yesterday share prices in Countrywide moved up almost 6% by 19.50p to finish at 351p.

The company also announced another acquisition yesterday – that of Lanes Land & New Homes, which operates in north London and Hertfordshire. It will become part of Countrywide’s Residential Development Business.