The UK’s largest estate agent, Countrywide, is anticipating a bumper year after its best third quarter on record.

Its report is in contrast to Foxtons, which last week issued a profits warning.

But like Foxtons, Countrywide has also experienced a marked slowdown in the London market.

In an interim report covering the three months to the end of September, a buoyant Countrywide said it sold more houses, arranged more mortgages, had more rented properties under management, and made more money than in the same period last year.

The only real black spot was London where house exchanges by the likes of its Hamptons and John D Wood brands dropped by 9%.

Countrywide said that in prime and central London areas there is starting to be a “rebalancing of price expectations between buyers and sellers”.

In these areas of London, Countrywide has more stock coming to the market – with its stock for sale almost at record levels – and it is priced lower than it would have been at the start of the year.

Jim Clarke, Countrywide’s finance director, said: “When London is doing well, Foxtons do incredibly well, but if London slows down a bit, which it has over the last two or three months, they’ve got nothing else to compensate for that.”

He also said that Countrywide agents in London are persuading sellers to chop their prices.

He said: “This is what estate agents are paid to do. If someone was telling you your house was worth £1m and three months later they say it’s worth £950,000, you aren’t going to agree immediately. It’s the job of the agent to broker the transaction and that takes a bit of time.”

Altogether in the third quarter of this year, Countrywide exchanged on 18,008 homes, up 11% on the same period last year.

In the year to date it has exchanged on 49,488 homes – up 16% on a year ago.

And despite a poor third quarter for London and “premier”, sales so far this year are nevertheless running 7% ahead of last year at 4,814 exchanges.

Countrywide’s mortgage business is booming, with 51,485 mortgages so far arranged this year, up 21% on a year ago.

Total revenues for the group for the year to date are now running 26% ahead of where they were last year.

EBITDA (earnings before tax, amortisation and other costs) is also strongly up.

Countrywide heaped praise on its lettings business, saying it continues to be a “key focus” for the group with both acquisitions and organic growth. The company has made 23 lettings purchases so far in 2014 at a cost of nearly £25m.

The company said: “We still see significant further opportunities to grow our presence in this market.”

Countrywide said of its entire business that it expects 2014 to be a “record year for both profits and operating margins, with all divisions recording increases in both revenue and profits”.

The interim report is the first to be delivered under new chief executive Alison Platt, who started at Countrywide on September 1.

Yesterday, shares in Countrywide rose 2.4%, to 460p – over £1 higher than at flotation last year.

Foxtons’ shares also rose, by 1.8%, but remain some 30% below their float price, also last year.