Countrywide Ea Profit Warning

[Sancho Panza]

On 27/07/2016 at 10:23 AM, Sancho Panza said:

Just to add an example of how p1ss poor Countrywide were.

They sent us a letter saying they were doing us a favour by only raising the rent by £50 and the contract fee would be only £150......the way they worded it,it seemed like you had to re-sign.

Obviously,after years on here I told Mrs P to ask the LL if he knew about it.

The LL to be fair exploded because he had specifically told them he didn't want to raise the rent and was happy for us to go onto a periodic.

My experiences with other,smaller LA's have been better.

On 27/07/2016 at 10:36 AM, Sancho Panza said:

Mrs P dealt with it all.

Apparently,all in the fees were £500 incl inventory/contract/referencing fees

edit to add-deposit was 6 weeks rent as well.

edit edit to add- we were in a rush beggars can't be choosers.Having said that,just had a look at the area and their market share locally has been hammered

http://www.frankinnes.co.uk/rent/letting-agents/

They only have 15 properties for Let and of those 11 are stated as 'Let Agreed'

On the website they state their fees are £425 plus VAT

On 27/07/2016 at 10:49 AM, Sancho Panza said:

http://www.frankinnes.co.uk/content/_shared/assets/pdf/OnlineTenantsGuide.pdf

admin fee-£50 per tenant

referncing fee £75 per tenant

check in fee-minimum £72

tenancy agreement-£300

other charges

sharer-£300

extension agreements -£125

outgoing referencing fee-£24

Optional extras

express move in within 3 days-£100

Express 5 days-£50

Saturday move in-£60

Pet licence-£75

So a joint application could be northwards of £625.

We recently moved and the LL told us he'd never use them again.Aside from the stunts they pulled,he said their fees were limiting his tenant pool.

Like I said,c**** and you can guess how I'm spelling it.

[Sancho Panza]

Parasites,the ban on lettings fees will hammer their earnings.

[Sancho Panza]

http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/newsflash-countrywide-profits-slaughtered/

My day starting incredibly well today,

'Pre-tax profits at Countrywide, the UK’s largest agent, fell by well over half last year, to £19.5m, from £47.7m the year before.

The firm said this morning it was immediately going to raise around £40m to roll out its digital offering, suggesting the possiblity of a seriously well funded challenge to Purplebricks in the UK – see our UPDATE at the foot of this story as to this share placing.

Announcing its annual results for last year this morning, the group’s total income was slightly up last year, at £737m companed with £733m the year before.

But all measures of profit were significally down – EBITDA fell from £113m to £83m, and operating profits from £53.8m to £28.8m.  There will be no final dividend.

In total, the group sold 66,210 homes last year – not dissimilar to the 67,677 sold the year before. Altogether restructuring costs were over £47m, which included just over £8m on redundancies and nearly £16m on 200 branch closures. The number of closures was more than had previously been disclosed.

It warned that this year, sales market volatility is likely to continue, with “expected headwinds” from the ban on tenants fees and a “pressured landlord environment”. It will focus on its digital roll-out, with its online offering due to be in half – some 400 – of its offices by June. It forecasts a fall in sales transactions this year and a small fall in house prices across the country.

 In a separate announcement to the stock exchange this morning, the firm said it is also placing up to 21,610,467 new shares, representing 10% of the company’s existing issued ordinary share capital. The net proceeds will be used to accelerate the group’s digital roll-out and “strengthen the company’s balance sheet”.

.

UPDATE: Countrywide announced the completion of its share placing mid-morning today. A total of 21,610,467 new shares representing 10% of the company’s current market capitalisation have raised £37.818m before expenses. These new shares are due to be admitted to the stock exchange on March 13.'

 

Looks like they're going to cannabilize each others profits.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Sancho Panza said:

http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/newsflash-countrywide-profits-slaughtered/

My day starting incredibly well today,

'Pre-tax profits at Countrywide, the UK’s largest agent, fell by well over half last year, to £19.5m, from £47.7m the year before.

The firm said this morning it was immediately going to raise around £40m to roll out its digital offering, suggesting the possiblity of a seriously well funded challenge to Purplebricks in the UK – see our UPDATE at the foot of this story as to this share placing.

Announcing its annual results for last year this morning, the group’s total income was slightly up last year, at £737m companed with £733m the year before.

But all measures of profit were significally down – EBITDA fell from £113m to £83m, and operating profits from £53.8m to £28.8m.  There will be no final dividend.

In total, the group sold 66,210 homes last year – not dissimilar to the 67,677 sold the year before. Altogether restructuring costs were over £47m, which included just over £8m on redundancies and nearly £16m on 200 branch closures. The number of closures was more than had previously been disclosed.

It warned that this year, sales market volatility is likely to continue, with “expected headwinds” from the ban on tenants fees and a “pressured landlord environment”. It will focus on its digital roll-out, with its online offering due to be in half – some 400 – of its offices by June. It forecasts a fall in sales transactions this year and a small fall in house prices across the country.

 In a separate announcement to the stock exchange this morning, the firm said it is also placing up to 21,610,467 new shares, representing 10% of the company’s existing issued ordinary share capital. The net proceeds will be used to accelerate the group’s digital roll-out and “strengthen the company’s balance sheet”.

.

UPDATE: Countrywide announced the completion of its share placing mid-morning today. A total of 21,610,467 new shares representing 10% of the company’s current market capitalisation have raised £37.818m before expenses. These new shares are due to be admitted to the stock exchange on March 13.'

 

Looks like they're going to cannabilize each others profits.

Great start to the day

[spyguy]

40 minutes ago, Sancho Panza said:

http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/newsflash-countrywide-profits-slaughtered/

My day starting incredibly well today,

'Pre-tax profits at Countrywide, the UK’s largest agent, fell by well over half last year, to £19.5m, from £47.7m the year before.

The firm said this morning it was immediately going to raise around £40m to roll out its digital offering, suggesting the possiblity of a seriously well funded challenge to Purplebricks in the UK – see our UPDATE at the foot of this story as to this share placing.

Announcing its annual results for last year this morning, the group’s total income was slightly up last year, at £737m companed with £733m the year before.

But all measures of profit were significally down – EBITDA fell from £113m to £83m, and operating profits from £53.8m to £28.8m.  There will be no final dividend.

In total, the group sold 66,210 homes last year – not dissimilar to the 67,677 sold the year before. Altogether restructuring costs were over £47m, which included just over £8m on redundancies and nearly £16m on 200 branch closures. The number of closures was more than had previously been disclosed.

It warned that this year, sales market volatility is likely to continue, with “expected headwinds” from the ban on tenants fees and a “pressured landlord environment”. It will focus on its digital roll-out, with its online offering due to be in half – some 400 – of its offices by June. It forecasts a fall in sales transactions this year and a small fall in house prices across the country.

 In a separate announcement to the stock exchange this morning, the firm said it is also placing up to 21,610,467 new shares, representing 10% of the company’s existing issued ordinary share capital. The net proceeds will be used to accelerate the group’s digital roll-out and “strengthen the company’s balance sheet”.

.

UPDATE: Countrywide announced the completion of its share placing mid-morning today. A total of 21,610,467 new shares representing 10% of the company’s current market capitalisation have raised £37.818m before expenses. These new shares are due to be admitted to the stock exchange on March 13.'

 

Looks like they're going to cannabilize each others profits.

CW are old style - they have way too much cpaital tied up in large offices in secondary locations.

These offices are a dead weight now - all property browsing is via computers.

To survive, EAs need to move to smaller, cheaper units on industrial estates/out of the way offices above shops. They just need a few filing cabinets, good internet and a meeting room.

CW dont need to raise money. They need to gut their capital.

 

[Sancho Panza]

2 hours ago, spyguy said:

CW are old style - they have way too much cpaital tied up in large offices in secondary locations.

These offices are a dead weight now - all property browsing is via computers.

To survive, EAs need to move to smaller, cheaper units on industrial estates/out of the way offices above shops. They just need a few filing cabinets, good internet and a meeting room.

CW dont need to raise money. They need to gut their capital.

 

Quite.And they have a voracious head office payroll to feed......................................giving smaller EA's a chance-but not much of one.I have little sympathy.I've been on the end of these people and their malpractice for too long.The industry needs gutting from Head office to small local branch

 

To survive,EA's ned to cut payrolls at head office and in the regions.

[AvoidDebt]

It's a sell from UBS. Not overtly confident with their life saving online strategy either. Foxtons and any other agent that attempts a similar high street to online switch will hit the same snag. 

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/3/countrywide-shares-hit-record-low-after-bank-downgrading

[spyguy]

3 minutes ago, AvoidDebt said:

It's a sell from UBS. Not overtly confident with their life saving online strategy either. Foxtons and any other agent that attempts a similar high street to online switch will hit the same snag. 

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2017/3/countrywide-shares-hit-record-low-after-bank-downgrading

Its a downgrade of *all* bricks+mortars agents.

 

[Sancho Panza]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=countrywide+share+price&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=kCNRWfqWN_PG8AfJppMg

 

testing April's £1.50 all time low...................

[Sancho Panza]

On 6/26/2017 at 4:11 PM, Sancho Panza said:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=countrywide+share+price&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=kCNRWfqWN_PG8AfJppMg

 

testing April's £1.50 all time low...................

£1.38........................a new low.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdVUncJzCm0

[nightowl]

On 13/03/2017 at 10:08 AM, Sancho Panza said:

Quite.And they have a voracious head office payroll to feed......................................giving smaller EA's a chance-but not much of one.I have little sympathy.I've been on the end of these people and their malpractice for too long.The industry needs gutting from Head office to small local branch

 

To survive,EA's ned to cut payrolls at head office and in the regions.

Given the internet means people can househunt for the last 15+ years, I fail to see what a nationwide EA model can offer. The business model is severely hampered by the overhead cost of too much headoffice management who don't bring anything valuable to the business.

I may be suffering from bias here, as im sure many business have no net advantage to be so big unless they intend to become nearer a monopoly...not sure they can get even

close.

[Princekie]

Ask yourself this question... Is it really worth buying a house right now, empty or not? Think of the future. The problem is, you'd be depending on someone from the millenial generation to buy your house at sale time. The most broke and indebted generation in, well, human history. That isn't going to improve any time soon. Generation X isn't much better.

Now consider who you'd be buying from – likely a baby boomer. This is a generation who as a whole have not saved anywhere close to adequately for retirement. In many cases the only “retirement plan” is the “equity” in their house. Because as we all know on HPC it's all about "pwopertee".

It’s a demographic and economic ticking time bomb as things like retirement, medical costs, care home costs etc creep up. You can see these things in our everyday lives, as we pay more and more for services and receive less and less.

This all adds up to a whole lot of older people who really need to sell, and a whole lot of younger people unable (or unwilling) to buy. On top if that we have over 4 million pensioners who live alone. Without company. The majority with their own home and nothing else.

Somehow I doubt that Gen X will take up the slack for the boomers.

Then it becomes a game of “whoever drops their price and sells first, wins.” Self reinforcing deflationary spiral ensues. Buy high today, lose your money in 10 years when there's a glut of houses up for sale and few buyers.

Oh my, it's going to be an interesting decade that we have to come. 

 

[Barnsey]

20 hours ago, Princekie said:

Ask yourself this question... Is it really worth buying a house right now, empty or not? Think of the future. The problem is, you'd be depending on someone from the millenial generation to buy your house at sale time. The most broke and indebted generation in, well, human history. That isn't going to improve any time soon. Generation X isn't much better.

Now consider who you'd be buying from – likely a baby boomer. This is a generation who as a whole have not saved anywhere close to adequately for retirement. In many cases the only “retirement plan” is the “equity” in their house. Because as we all know on HPC it's all about "pwopertee".

It’s a demographic and economic ticking time bomb as things like retirement, medical costs, care home costs etc creep up. You can see these things in our everyday lives, as we pay more and more for services and receive less and less.

This all adds up to a whole lot of older people who really need to sell, and a whole lot of younger people unable (or unwilling) to buy. On top if that we have over 4 million pensioners who live alone. Without company. The majority with their own home and nothing else.

Somehow I doubt that Gen X will take up the slack for the boomers.

Then it becomes a game of “whoever drops their price and sells first, wins.” Self reinforcing deflationary spiral ensues. Buy high today, lose your money in 10 years when there's a glut of houses up for sale and few buyers.

Oh my, it's going to be an interesting decade that we have to come. 

 

Very nice bit of clarity there Princekie, well put.

[spyguy]

21 hours ago, Princekie said:

Ask yourself this question... Is it really worth buying a house right now, empty or not? Think of the future. The problem is, you'd be depending on someone from the millenial generation to buy your house at sale time. The most broke and indebted generation in, well, human history. That isn't going to improve any time soon. Generation X isn't much better.

Now consider who you'd be buying from – likely a baby boomer. This is a generation who as a whole have not saved anywhere close to adequately for retirement. In many cases the only “retirement plan” is the “equity” in their house. Because as we all know on HPC it's all about "pwopertee".

It’s a demographic and economic ticking time bomb as things like retirement, medical costs, care home costs etc creep up. You can see these things in our everyday lives, as we pay more and more for services and receive less and less.

This all adds up to a whole lot of older people who really need to sell, and a whole lot of younger people unable (or unwilling) to buy. On top if that we have over 4 million pensioners who live alone. Without company. The majority with their own home and nothing else.

Somehow I doubt that Gen X will take up the slack for the boomers.

Then it becomes a game of “whoever drops their price and sells first, wins.” Self reinforcing deflationary spiral ensues. Buy high today, lose your money in 10 years when there's a glut of houses up for sale and few buyers.

Oh my, it's going to be an interesting decade that we have to come. 

 

Come to Scarborough. The futures already arrived.

[Princekie]

Thank you Barnsley, that's very kind.

And I can believe it Spyguy. Truth is, the future has arrived in a few places already. Give it another couple of years when the mass die-offs start...negative equity and housing slump.

I'm holding out. I'm prepared to wait. Only fools rush in.

[Houdini]

On 25/08/2017 at 7:03 PM, nightowl said:

Given the internet means people can househunt for the last 15+ years, I fail to see what a nationwide EA model can offer. The business model is severely hampered by the overhead cost of too much headoffice management who don't bring anything valuable to the business.

I may be suffering from bias here, as im sure many business have no net advantage to be so big unless they intend to become nearer a monopoly...not sure they can get even

close.

There is always the purple bricks argument that all you need is a centralised call centre and that’s enough.

i suspect long term the market will split in 2, bargain basement online agents (probably charging between £100-£700 ) and a posher version with a local presence working from home who will do the negotiation and viewings for you. Possibly another £500 on top or possibly pay per view. 

[maverick73]

Sounds Iike another round of business shop front foreclosures. If the can't sell, then they will look at cost savings etc....

[Sancho Panza]

https://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=LON%3ACWD&ei=PhywWYHVN8WNUpugkuAH

New low £1.35