Lean times in the commercial property market have prompted Savills' boss Mark Ridley to declare 2023 as the toughest financial year he has experienced.

With transaction volumes globally down by 44%, Mark Ridley, the CEO of the global property sales group, said that last year's conditions were as tough as both the worldwide financial crisis of 2007-8 and the recession of the early 1990s.

Savills high street presence as a traditional residential sales agency represents around a tenth of its overall activity, with the brokerage of offices, warehouses and industrial real estate occupying the large majority of the group's work, both in sales and investment deals.

Mr Ridley's comments came against the release of Savills' preliminary results for the full year ended December 31st, 2023, which showed group revenue fell by 3% to £2.24bn against the previous full year's £2.3bn. Underlying profit before tax was £94.8m, a 42% fall on 2022's figure of £164.6m.

Savill's headline findings on the results cited:

● Robust performance of the less transactional businesses, which represents 65% of Group revenue, and which grew 7%, underpinning overall Group performance.

● Property Management and Consultancy businesses performed well with revenues increasing 11% to £899.5m and 4% to £459.8m, respectively.

● Savills Investment Management revenue decreased 6%. Assets under management ('AUM') was stable at £22.1bn (2022: £22.1bn).

● Global Transactional Advisory revenues, in aggregate 35% of Group revenue, decreased 17%, reflecting significantly reduced capital and leasing market volumes globally.

● Global Residential revenues declined 19% as markets normalised, following high levels of post pandemic activity, and adapted to higher interest rates.

Mark Ridley, Group CEO, said: "Savills resilient performance in 2023 highlights the diversity and strength of our global business. In the context of extremely challenging real estate markets, which saw the lowest levels of transaction volumes for a decade, our less transactional businesses have provided a solid platform for the Group with a resilient and growing earnings stream."

Current economic and geopolitical conditions remained uncertain, he said, with expectation for this to remain for some time, but he added: "most markets appear to be past the moment of peak uncertainty. There are some early signs of underlying market improvements, which should set the course for a broader recovery during the second half of the year and into 2025".

In comments reported in the Times newspaper, Mr Ridley added: "I've been doing this for 40 years and I would say [2023] was the toughest transactional year I can remember."