Hunters says it’s opened seven new branches this year so far – well ahead of the three it had launched at this point in 2018.

It also says others are in the pipeline with announcements to be made in the near future.

In a statement to shareholders at the firm’s Annual General Meeting over the weekend, chairman Kevin Hollinrake – who is also a Conservative MP – says: “Despite the market’s difficulties I am delighted to announce that the first half year is expected to end slightly better than the board anticipated which puts us in a good position.”

He added that the fee ban, being introduced by his government next week on June 1, would make an impact but insisted that the company had already costed this in to its growth forecasts.

“Given our strong sales profile our exposure is expected to be less significant than predominately lettings-based businesses. We believe that as the burden of regulation increases the demand from independent businesses to join our network to take advantage of our portal discounts, technology, procurement and training and demonstrable record of improving revenue will prove even more compelling” he said.

Last month Hollinrake revealed that Hunters’ purchasing power was such that it secured 60 per cent discounts from major portals and suggested this was a direct factor in the revenue growth of those independent agents which had swung over to the Hunters banner in recent years.

At the weekend’s AGM Hollinrake also announced that Hunters’ customer service rating had remained at 96 per cent across sales and lettings.