Asia earnings jump 21 percent for Savills amid Brexit slump

Asia has buoyed up profits at Savills, the UK based real estate company. Revenues at the group totaled 1.4 billion, with 486 million in the Asian business in 2016, reports the FT. The positive set of results from Asia for the FTSE 250 company come at period of uncertainty for the UK real estate market after the Brexit vote.

Savills UK residential business was down 3 percent, slowed by a sales slump in high end properties in Central London. Property investor London Central Portfolio (LCP) recorded a 29% fall in London property sales across the market, the lowest level since 1996, reports Reuters.  The slump has resulted in the shedding of 6,000 estate agency jobs in the past 3 quarters, according the Office of National Statistics reports Bloomberg.

The sentiment of foreign buyers in the UK real estate market post Brexit, such as the Malaysian consortia in the Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station developments, will be a key barometer in the outlook for the UK market in 2017.