Founded in 1981, Foxtons started life as a two-person agency in Notting Hill. Over the years we are proud to have become London's leading estate agent.


Estate agency Foxtons Group has announced the successful pricing of its IPO of 169.4m shares of one pence each. The price has been set at 230p per share.

Based on the Offer Price, the market capitalisation of the Company will be approximately £649m on admission.

The Offer is expected to raise gross proceeds of approximately £390m, comprising a primary component of £55m and secondary sales of £335m. Secondary sales will consist of a partial sell-down by Adnams BBPM Holdings Limited (an entity controlled indirectly by funds advised by BC Partners), executive directors of the Company and certain other employees of the Group.

Conditional dealings will commence on the London Stock Exchange at 8.00 a.m. today under the ticker FOXT.

Admission to the premium listing segment of the Official List and to trading on the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange and the commencement of unconditional dealings in the Shares ("Admission") are expected to take place at 8.00 a.m. on 25 September 2013. At Admission the Company will have 282,176,468 Shares in issue.

http://www.foxtons.co.uk/

Is estate agent sell-off overdone? - By Lee Wild | Thu, 24th November 2016 - 13:27

Philip Hammond's first Autumn Statement as chancellor has attracted plenty of criticism, not least for the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) estimate that Brexit will cost the UK up to £60 billion. There's some scepticism around infrastructure spending, help for housebuilders and the deficit, too, but it's new rules on estate agent fees that's had most impact on equity markets.

The government proposes to ban letting agents from charging tenants' fees for things like reference, credit and immigration checks, and for drawing up tenancy agreements. This can be a huge cost to renters, especially in London hotspots. According to the Citizens Advice Bureau, the average charge to cover admin services is about £337.

David Cox, managing director of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), called Hammond's crackdown "a crowd-pleaser" that will not help tenants long-term. He might be right, but the chancellor seemed pretty committed.

"In the private rental market, letting agents are currently able to charge unregulated fees to tenants," Hammond told a packed House. "We have seen these fees spiral, often to hundreds of pounds. This is wrong. Landlords appoint letting agents and landlords should meet their fees. So I can announce today that we will ban fees to tenants as soon as possible."

His plan had been leaked overnight Tuesday, so big players like Foxtons (FOXT) had plunged well before Hammond stood up at 12:38 Wednesday. The London-based firm is down over 16% over the past two days.

Clearly, the likes of Countrywide (CWD) and Belvoir Lettings (BLV) had a sleepless night, both issuing trading updates first thing Thursday.

Relisted by private equity owner Oaktree Capital in 2013 at 350p, Countrywide's share price responded with a further 13% dive to 169p, adding to yesterday's 5% slide. The UK's largest integrated property services group - it does lettings, sales, mortgage broking etc - warned Thursday that stamp duty changes and the EU referendum had already hurt business.

"Transaction levels are currently running significantly below 2015," it said, adding that volumes for 2016 will be down 6% on last year, and that 2017 could be even worse. That will dump 2016 cash profit at the bottom of market expectations.

Chief executive Alison Platt hardly mentioned the chancellor and letting agents' fees, saying only that she "looks forward" to working with government through the consultation process.

AIM-listed Belvoir was more specific. "At this stage, Belvoir cannot fully predict the likely financial impact on the results for the year ended December 2017 and beyond," it said. "Based on the group's experience following a similar decision in Scotland in 2012, however, the board anticipates that mitigating action should be possible over time and indeed it should be noted that no franchisees were lost in Scotland as a consequence."

It predicts about 10% of income derived by franchisees is from fees to tenants, and that the impact on total group gross profit will be less than 8%.

Elsewhere, AIM-listed online estate agency Purplebricks (PURP) won a reprieve after claiming the chancellor's action would not have any "meaningful impact" on the business. Upfront fees are already pretty low and it does not charge renewal fees. We'll hear more at the interim results on 5 December.

What the experts say

First of all, it's well worth recapping what technical analyst and Interactive Investor contributor Alistair Strang predicted here a month ago, with Countrywide's share price at 202p. I quote:

"From a software perspective, [Countrywide] currently needs to better 280p to cancel a logical target at 170p, this being a point around which some sort of bounce can be hoped."

And today's session will be hugely important if Alistair's often reliable software is right.

"The problem comes if the share closes a session below 169p, as apparently the final bottom should be at 127p," he warns. Keep 'em peeled.

UBS spells out the risks

"Our initial approximate sensitivity analysis suggests that while there is a meaningful [operating profit/EBIT] impact the share price reactions could be overdone," suggests UBS analyst Heidi Richardson.

"We estimate that without mitigating action the change could impact Foxtons FY17 EBIT by -4% to -12%, and Countrywide FY17 EBIT by -2% to -7%. However it could be lower if fees are transferred to landlords/rents rise. For Savills we expect limited impact as UK residential transactions make up just 9% of sales including fees from selling homes."

Richardson still rates Foxtons and Savills a 'buy', and remains 'neutral' on Countrywide.

According to market data site SharePad, Foxtons now trades on about 16 times forward earnings and yields around 6%. Countrywide trades on just 7 times earnings and yields about 6.5%.

BELVOIR LETTINGS 110.00p -8.33%
COUNTRYWIDE 170.00p -12.33%
FOXTONS GROUP 102.25p -2.85%
PURPLEBRICKS GROUP 110.0

London Property Prices Falling Faster Than You Think, NAMA Warns
Bloomberg - November 24, 2016 — 1:31 PM GMT

U.K. real estate prices may be dropping at a much faster pace than official reports indicate, according to the Irish agency that manages property loans acquired from bailed-out banks.
Reports since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union point to the value of land in central London declining by more than 10 percent in the past year, while house prices are 11 percent below their 2014 peak, said Frank Daly, chairman of Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency, known as NAMA.

“Our analysis suggests that the fall in U.K. prices may be much higher than official estimates,” Daly told lawmakers in Dublin on Thursday. “Analysts are forecasting that prices will fall further over the coming years, partly in response to a weakening economy and to the likelihood that companies will move staff overseas in response to Brexit.”

Irish ministers and executives are closely monitoring economic and market developments in the U.K. because the country is Ireland’s largest trading partner along with the U.S. Earlier this month, Stephen Vernon, chairman of Dublin-based Green Property, said London’s real estate market is “tanking by the day.”

Office values in the City of London financial district fell the most in at least seven years in July after the Brexit vote in June, according to CBRE Group Inc. Home prices in the U.K. capital fell for a fifth month in August, the worst streak since 2009, as higher taxes and the referendum result damped demand.

Explore Housing Prices in London
NAMA took over billions of euros in risky debt following the financial crisis in 2008 and Ireland’s international bailout. The agency’s debtors have 800 million pounds ($995 million) in assets located in Britain, down from 12 billion pounds in 2011. Among loans NAMA took over were those linked to the Battersea Power Station site on the banks of the River Thames. It sold them on in 2012.

FOXT have been really bad news for ages and am very pleased i bit the bullet on them at 160
it wasn't nice at the time, but of course would have been far worse now


i know i keep banging the drum for RMV but unashamedly continue to do so, though of course it has also taken something of a knock recently

PURP has performed the best of the above (don't know Belvoir), but as that is a "new boy" it doesn't have a lot of history

RMV knocks the socks off both FOXT and CWD and as market leader (by miles) should continue to do so

No one left to sell to at London prices. Need a cohort clubbing together to buy a basic home. Victims of their own ramping.

Foxtons says sales could fall further in 2017

Negative comment in todays DM.

Half year report

Asking myself, what happens to Estate Agents et al if we have a mild recession with Bricks and Mortar at Amazon.com levels?

Oh Dear. What a shame, never mind.

depends how good they are at their job

the likes of PURP absolutely stink ...... ask any professional who has looked at their contract ....... total rip-off and they have no care or interest on whether your house is sold or not

Foxton's says London property sales "near historic lows"

i wonder how buoyant the rental market is in comparison .... that certainly used to be FOXT's main focus and strength

London is so busy. Where everyone stays is beyond me. Tube full whenever you get on it.

Has to be Rental Market that serves all these folk.

The locals don't look caked in my view.

there are such things as overseas visitors, but i understansd that they usually stay in these peculiar things known as hotels or even Airbnb (whatever that may be)

Oh Dear, what a shame. never mind.

whoopsadaisy
is this one heading for the glue factory?
their hard sell ethos has probably backfired

All Housebuilders and Estate Agents are of the pace. My take is that the headline price is off the scale for most. Adjustment ongoing for a few years and its nothing to do with Brexit. Prices been ramped to a point where the ceiling has been reached. If the "Unreliable boyfriend" pulls the trigger with rate rise (I seriously doubt it) then more downside to come.

cynic, (2017 post no. 264.), you may not like the PURP business model - but as an investment it's risen 100% in the past 2-years, whereas FOXT has slipped badly over four years off its high, in 2014.
Of course some of the fall is bound to be "falling-house-prices" which is a common perception and must affect the big-ticket deals that FOXT were interested in. I think BREXT has an effect... not that it should, but folks may wonder if things will change.

However, whilst I think PURP is overpriced - As an investment 2-yrs ago one has to wonder why I didn't spot it.... probably because it wasn't "Good-Value" then ( and still isn't IMHO), based on Yield, P/E and similar markers.

FOXT should have seen the internet coming and developed their own channel, maybe with an entry-price for those "looking" = to remove voyeurs. After all, if you are splashing £10m you won't mind a £100k Fee to gain entry to the latest on offer. Similarly FOXT should be able to mediate with developers who sell off-plan and maybe don't want too many locals seeing what they are up to, at least until the building-work has started.
I don't follow FOXT, but their sp movement maybe tells it all, along with a sizeable PE ratio. FOXT was in the main-fallers today.
Cheers.