Belvoir Group, the UK property franchise and financial services group, has given a positive trading update.

During the six months to 30 June 2023, group revenue increased by 3% on 2022 with revenue growth in both its property franchise and financial services adviser networks, despite more challenging market conditions in H1 2023.

The group, which has offices in Cheltenham and Gloucester, is outperforming the market across all three of its revenue streams - lettings, sales and financial services. 

Consequently, the board has confirmed that the group is trading comfortably in line with management's expectations for the year ending December 2023.

Management Service Fees, the core underlying revenue from the property franchise networks, were up 4% on 2022 with a strong lettings performance, up 8%, more than mitigating the lower level of property sales activity, down 9%.

Dorian Gonsalves, CEO of Belvoir Group, commented: "Our tried-and-tested franchise business model, the diversity of our income streams, the recurring nature of our lettings revenue and our successful acquisition strategy, both at franchisee and corporate level, have enabled the group to meet and overcome the challenges currently facing the property sector.

"Our franchisees derive 80% (H1 2022: 78%) of their income from recurring lettings fees and have benefitted from increasing rents. This has more than offset the impact of a reduction in UK housing transactions in H1 2023.

"Meanwhile, our financial services advisers have been able to meet client demand for remortgages and product transfers in the face of increasing mortgage rates and this has mitigated the reduction in new purchase mortgages.

"The high degree of uncertainty created in the property and mortgage markets following the mini budget in September 2022 and subsequent interest rate rises, resulted in a drop-off in mortgage applications and house sales instructions towards the end of 2022 and made it very difficult to forecast the impact of increasing bank base rates on these markets in 2023.

"However, the outperformance of our business model continues to reflect the entrepreneurial nature of our franchisees and self-employed financial services advisers, who remain entirely focused on maximising the opportunities presented in all market conditions."