Savills plc has published its half year results to 30th June.

Group revenue is down by £55.6m to £791.4m and underlying profit before tax is down £25.2m to £13.2m.

Group profit before tax is down a massive 69% to just £7.7m compared to £24.7m in H1 2019.

UK Residential revenue for the six month period was down 8%, reflecting the significant reductions in transactional activity during lockdown (where in the second quarter of 2020 transactional activity was down 56%), partially mitigated by a strong recovery in June.

Commercial Transaction revenue reduced 23% overall with Asia Pacific and North America particularly affected.

The firm says that UK Residential Transaction market conditions were challenging with market trading volumes at the lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis.

Savills UK residential revenue declined 8% to £52.9m (H1 2019: £57.3m).

In the second hand agency business, revenues declined by 16% as all firms were largely prevented by lockdown from transacting during the key Spring sales season.

The strong surge in activity in June, once viewings were again permitted, led to a record number of transactions going under offer, which should be reflected in revenue in the coming periods.  This recovery was primarily in the Country market as buyers sought outside amenity space.

However, Savills has also seen a significant recovery in activity in the core London market during the same period together with improved activity from international buyers in Prime Central London.

Savills overall transaction volumes exchanged were down 8% in London and 27% in the regional markets.

The average value of London residential property sold by Savills in the period was down 11% to £1.9m (H1 2019: £2.1m) reflecting the effect of an increased proportion of transactions in the core London market (values £0.5m-£1.5m).

The average transaction value outside London grew marginally to £1.2m (H1 2019: £1.17m).

Revenue from sales of new homes was 17% down on H1 2019. New homes reservations for H1 2020 were also down 16% on H1 2019 reflecting both overall market trends and the inability of overseas buyers to travel during lockdown.

A similar improvement in activity has been seen since the beginning of June.

Private Rented Sector (PRS) transactional business delivered an outstanding performance increasing revenue by 87% period on period.

As a result of the above factors, underlying profits in the UK residential transaction business decreased by 54% to £1.6m (H1 2019: £3.5m).