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October 5, 2026
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Countrywide Shares Fall 20% On Profit Warning

πŸ“… | Words: 273
πŸ“‚ Categories: Business
🏷️ Tags: London
πŸ“ Location: United Kingdom
Written By: Famzn News

Verified Author & Editorial Contributor

Bairstow Eves branchImage copyright Getty Images

Shares in Countrywide, the UK's largest property agent group, have fallen greater than 20% after it issued its second profit warning this 12 months.

Countrywide, which has manufacturers together with Bairstow Eves and Gascoigne Pees, mentioned it anticipated first-half earnings to be about Β£20m decrease than final 12 months.

"We do not expect this shortfall to be recovered in the second half," it mentioned.

It mentioned circumstances within the housing market continued to be "subdued" and offers had been taking longer to finish.

The agency has been hit by a slowdown within the housing market, in addition to the rise of on-line brokers equivalent to Purplebricks.

Countrywide also stated that it was trying to elevate "additional equity finance" with the purpose of chopping debt by 50%.


Chief government Alison Platt left in January after the earlier profit warning. Chairman Peter Long grew to become government chairman following her departure.

In March, shares slumped after the corporate introduced that pre-tax earnings for 2017 had greater than halved to Β£25.2m, from Β£52.7m in 2016.

At the time, it stated that it was shedding about 150 of its 450-strong head workplace workforce as a part of a cost-cutting drive. The agency employs about eight,000 nationwide.

Countrywide shouldn't be the one property agent to be struggling because the housing market hits powerful instances.

Earlier this 12 months, one other chain, Foxtons, reported a hunch in earnings because it warned that exercise within the London housing market was close to historic lows.

Foxtons mentioned it anticipated "trading conditions to remain challenging during 2018", with gross sales anticipated to be decrease than final 12 months.

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