South West-headquartered The Property Franchise Group, the UK’s largest business of its kind, chalked up significant organic growth last year and has told shareholders it is continuing to look for further acquisitions.
Having spent last year bedding in two takeovers completed in 2024, the Bournemouth-based multi-brand property franchisor said it was now looking for opportunities to develop its platform and support its financial services division’s buy-and-build strategy.
In a trading update released to the London Stock Exchange, the firm said group revenue increased last year by 25% to £84.3m, with 51% deriving from recuring revenue sources. Lettings increased by 5% to £21.6m and sales by 9% to £10.5m.
Revenue in its financial services division jumped by 26% to £24.2m.
Following a spate of acquisitions, the group, which was founded in 1986, now has nearly 2,000 branches operating under 18 brands.
These include Fine & Country, Hunters, and Mr and Mrs Clarke. It also manages more than 150,000 rental properties.
Its franchising division, which operates across 15 brands, achieved more than 35,000 sales last year, making it the largest property franchise business in the UK.
The underlying growth in its lettings division was achieved despite what it called a challenging market, with the Renters Rights Act leading to a small change in the number of managed properties coupled with a lower level of rental inflation of 4%.
However, this was countered with the launch of the group’s Privilege programme, which includes a rent guarantee product that provides a new revenue stream within a franchisee’s lettings income.
Since the year end, the group has acquired an 85% stake in Bath-based Smart Advice Financial Solutions, a leading financial services business with 35 advisors, for a total consideration of £1.5m, of which 20% has been deferred to July 2027.
The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing.
Smart Advice Financial Solutions provides mortgage and related financial services to clients and is an appointed representative firm of Mortgage Advice Bureau.
Gareth Samples, The Property Franchise Group chief executive officer, said: “FY25 was a strong year of execution, with successful business integration and solid growth in revenue, profitability and cash.
“Our significantly increased scale is enabling us to deliver greater value to our network and enables us to capitalise on additional revenue opportunities, as demonstrated by the launch of our Privilege programme.
“I’m excited about what lies ahead for the group, as we build on our consolidated platform to unlock additional growth opportunities which are underpinned by a resilient business model and a high proportion of recurring revenues.”