Knight Frank have posted record profits in "one of the most extraordinary years in its 125-year history".

The company has seen pre-tax rise 23 per cent to £173.7m (2020: £141.1m) although turnover fell 7 per cent to £512.7m (2020: £549.6m).

Knight Frank is one of the world's leading independent real estate consultancies with 384 offices across the world, including those in Cheltenham, Cirencester and Stow-on-the-Wold.

Alistair Elliott, senior partner & group chairman, commented: "On the back of one of the most extraordinary years in our 125-year history, I am pleased to report a strong set of results.

"The firm's agility and speed of reaction to the pandemic has enabled us to outperform our early financial expectations.

"This year has cemented our confidence in the firm's global platform. At the heart of this is our partnership structure, which gave us the ability to plan and respond quickly. We have remained resolute in our focus on our people and the need to continue to invest in our business for the future.

"At times of adversity Knight Frank has always shown its true colours - no more so than during the pandemic, when I experienced the firm at its very best. From day one, we came together sharing early learnings from our businesses around the world, allowing us to react quickly with confidence.

"This firm-wide collaboration continues to give us the expertise to better advise our clients across the real estate sectors. Our diversified offering and the early measures we took to shape the firm in anticipation of the headwinds that lay ahead underpin these robust results and record profit.

"Turnover is down just 7% largely due to a reduction in transactional activity across capital markets and office agency showing a far stronger position than our budgets. We planned conservatively given the global uncertainty, then adapted our position to focus on the right areas to deliver outperformance for ourselves and our clients.

"Notably, UK residential, and especially our country business, which saw record demand levels."

"Swift market re-engagement, in parallel with cost constraints, have resulted in our profits growing by 23 per cent on the previous year. As a group we reduced our marketing spend, our people travelled less and our staff costs lowered - all factors that have positively impacted the firm's profitability.

"Knight Frank initially took advantage of the UK Government's furlough scheme as well as asking all our people to make a salary sacrifice - precautionary measures taken in readiness for what the firm felt may lay ahead. Yet, with markets responding better than forecasted, we were pleased to pay back the furlough grants and reimburse our people's salary sacrifice in full."

In addition to opening in five new countries this year, Knight Frank has formed a new strategic alliance in North America. In October 2021, Knight Frank began its new partnership with Cresa, the world's largest occupier-centric commercial real estate firm based in the USA.