The head of one of the country’s highest profile franchise agency empires says the self-employed ethos of some advisers and entrepreneurial nature of franchisees has helped the firm weather recent economic crises.

Dorian Gonsalves, chief executive of Belvoir Group, makes the comments in a trading statement to shareholders.

Belvoir’s franchisees derive 80 per cent of their income from recurring lettings fees which has more than offset the impact of the cooling sales market. Belvoir’s financial services advisers have been able to work on remortgages and product transfers which have also mitigated the reduction in new purchase mortgages. 

Gonsalves goes on to say: “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.” 

Overall, Belvoir Group reported a 3.0 per cent increase in revenue for the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year, despite challenging market conditions. And it insists that it is performing better than the overall market in its three revenue streams of lettings, sales and financial services.

It says its acquisition strategy remains active with the company reporting a balance sheet with net cash of £0.4m.