The luxury home market is buoyant, especially in Italy. Engel & Völkers, a group active in the luxury real estate sector, once again increased its total fee income in the first half of 2017, reaching 300,6 million euros, with an increase of 31% compared to the same period last year (first half of 2016: 229,4 million euros).
And it is precisely in Italy that the shops for residential properties achieved the highest growth internationally, with an increase of 92%, reaching 8,7 million euros (first half 2016: 4,5 million euros). Among the most profitable markets in the residential division is the DACH region. Shops for residential properties recorded revenue growth of 6% to 89,7 million euros (first half 2016: 84,4 million euros).
“Franchise operations, generally very successful in our target markets, were just one of the factors contributing to this strong growth. Residential property brokerage shops in North America alone accounted for about a quarter of the Group's total revenues,” he said. Christian Völkers, founder and managing director of Engel & Völkers AG.
Spain too saw a continuation of its growth trend, with residential property shops increasing revenues by 19 per cent to €24,5m (H2016 20,6: €65,7m). Also in North America Engel & Völkers continued on its expansion path and increased revenues by 69,6% to 2016 million euros (first half 42: XNUMX million euros).
A significant increase in revenues was also recorded by the Commercial division – specialized in the brokerage of commercial real estate including: offices, industrial and commercial spaces, hotels and investment properties. In the first six months of 2017, this division achieved revenue growth of 29% to 43,8 million euros (first half 2016: 34 million euros).
The Market Center (MC) idea has also proved extremely profitable. Overall, the Spanish MCs from Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia managed to increase their turnover in the first half of 2017 by 55% to €20,4m (H2016 13,1: €XNUMXm). A remarkable growth it was also registered by the Market Centers of Rome, New York and Dubai, through which Engel & Völkers is pursuing the strategy of rapid growth in selected real estate markets. A country with a market center achieves ten to twenty times the transaction volume of a traditional Engel & Völkers shop.
Engel & Völkers expects further growth across all business divisions in the second half of the year. “We are confident that around 560 million euros will be generated by the end of the year,” said Sven Odia, CEO of Engel & Völkers AG.
