 fell on Monday morning, after the company issued a fresh profit warning for the year. The UK's largest estate agent issued its second profit warning of the year, after noting an increasingly "subdued" housing market.){kind=link}
Shares in Countrywide (LON:CWD) fell on Monday morning, after the company issued a fresh profit warning for the year.
The UK’s largest estate agent issued its second profit warning of the year, after noting an increasingly “subdued” housing market.
Specifically, the group had been affected by a downturn in the London market as well as the competiton from online agent rivals such as Purplebricks.
Countrywide said adjusted profits in the first half would be approximately £20 million lower than a year ago and the shortfall would not be made up in the second half of the year.
Countrywide added that it was looking to raise “additional equity finance” with the aim of cutting debt by 50 percent.
“Our focus remains on building back the sales pipeline and we expect to substantially close the pipeline gap by the end of the year. We will provide full year guidance and a detailed recovery plan at the interim results on 26 July 2018,” the company said.
The group owns various estate agents brands across the UK such as Bairstow Eves, Hamptons International and Taylors.
Similarly, estate agent chain Foxtons (LON:FOXT) said profits had been hit by the slowdown in the property across the capital, according to its reporting in February.
Foxtons said letting revenue had fell by just 3 per cent to £66.3 million, however sales revenue dropped by a considerable 23 per cent to £42.6 million.
According to figures, house prices in London are falling at the fastest rate since 2009, with prices falling as much as 15 percent over the course of the past year.
Shares in the group are currently trading -23.97 percent as of 11.02AM (GMT).