Good afternoon, sir.
Hi, I'm Dominic Agace, CEO of Winkworth, and this is Andrew Nicol, CFO of Winkworth PLC. I'm delighted to be here to talk you through 2025 results. Without much further ado, this slide is really for those of you that don't know us, just sort of how the model works. We were established in 1835, 190 years old, and we celebrated that last year. We have 103 offices. We have two owned offices, 46 in the U.K. and 59 offices in London. Make that bigger. There we go. That's better. Sorry, there it is. The model works that we charge 8% of gross revenue of the franchise network. We aim to provide a platform for an independent business to operate in the top three in their marketplace. We do that because we believe that makes them durable in all markets, maintaining profitability and able to invest and evolve themselves.
Part of that platform, we provide all the services that an estate agent and manager of a corporate agency would expect. From marketing to training, to digital, to compliance and knowledge and regulations, all the things at the end of the phone that they're used to, happily at the end of the phone with us. As a model, we take options on the premises, so we don't take leases ourselves, and the contract is 10 + 10 years, personally guaranteed by the franchise. Straight into 2025 and the operational overview. The first half of 2025 was incredibly strong. It was driven by the stamp duty changing in April. There was a surge of activity in Q1, which saw activity come through, which somewhat faded in the second half as we moved towards the uncertainty of the Autumn Statement.
We saw lettings growth last year, and in fact, it was a record year for us in terms of lettings revenue, and a very strong sales performance across the network. We maintained our position as the largest sales agent in our operating area based on the number of properties exchanged in 2025. We opened four new offices. We re-franchised seven as part of the portfolio management piece, where we looked to improve the offices that we have through introducing new talent to take them on to the next level. We made a one-off investment into our Prime Central London marketing. This is really to support a talented individual we brought in to our Knightsbridge office to turn that around and become a leader of Prime Central London for us, and we put some money behind him to help him with that turnaround.
We increased investment in consultancy to support the system development of the business, and looking at automation of Winkworth franchising accounts. We sold our Crystal Palace office to a neighboring franchisee.
In terms of the actual numbers, to put a wee bit of flesh on those bones. Network revenue for the year at GBP 68.7 million was up 6% on 2024. The sales split was 52/48, with sales slightly up on the previous year. In terms of the split between lettings and sales revenue, lettings revenue for the year was GBP 32.9 million, and that was 3% up on the GBP 32 million in 2024, and it was 3% up at the half year as well. On the sales side, overall for the year at GBP 35.8 million, it was 10% up on 2024. It had been 27% up at the half year, so it sort of less reflects Dominic's earlier comments about the slowing in the second half of the year. In terms of Winkworth's actual revenue, it was down 1% at GBP 10.74 million. Couple of reasons for that.
On the Franchising business, which was up about GBP 150,000 year-on-year, the sales and lettings revenue was up by about GBP 300,000 on the back of the strong lettings and sales performance in the year. Our ancillary fees were up by about GBP 100,000 or so. Where the revenue had dropped year-on-year was in what we call the Assignment and License fees and our China desk, which both had slower years than in 2025 than in 2024. On the Owned Offices side, revenue was down by about GBP 200,000, and that is basically around our Crystal Palace office, which we will say a bit more about as the presentation proceeds. Cost of sales were down slightly due to less split commissions on our Development & Commercial business. The Admin expenses were up about GBP 550,000 year-on-year. Two elements to that.
There were one-off costs of about GBP 300,000 and ongoing increases of about GBP 250,000, which would be equivalent to about a 4% year-on-year increase. In terms of the one-off costs, Dominic's already alluded to the GBP 100,000 that we invested in marketing in Prime Central London. We spent about GBP 70,000 around an office move, the Head Office move. Two elements to that, the actual move costs, but also an element of double rent, which clearly won't be repeated. We had GBP 100,000 increase on the back of benefits and salary increases, and we spent about GBP 40,000 on consultants on the automation points that Dominic's mentioned previously. With the GBP 300,000 profit on the sale of the Crystal Palace business, the net effect of that was that the profit before tax was down 11% to GBP 2.11 million. The Owned Offices contributed GBP 3.25 million, as I say, down slightly on the previous year.
Cash at the year-end was a healthy GBP 4.9 million. There's no debt, and we paid ordinary dividends in the year, declared ordinary dividend of the year of GBP 13.23, which was 7% up on the previous year.
The next slide, we've talked about the different parts of the business and the performance throughout 2025. I suppose we can see the notable drops were in Central London. Unfortunately, this was particularly affected, one, by non-dom legislation changing, affecting buyer demand at the higher end. Clearly, the Autumn Statement where there was lots of rumors of wealth taxation, which caused people to pause. It was a poor year for Central London as a result of that. The sort of positive things, looking at it on the letting side of things is that there was a small decline in lettings, but our conversion to property management overrode that. Lettings business grew as a whole to a new record, as I've said.
The core business, which is, I suppose, the Outer London, and increasingly country markets, performed very strongly from a sales perspective, and solidly from a lettings perspective. Looking at the breakdown of the network revenue, those who have followed us before will see this as a fairly familiar chart. We're broadly 50/50. The lettings business grew, but the sales business outgrew it. We're happy with that balance, and it means that we're well-positioned to take market share when activity switches from sales to lettings, and operate successfully in both marketplaces. In terms of the sort of three areas we divide our business into, you can see the division here. Ultimately, one of the areas that we look at is Central London, which traditionally was at 24%. It's had a difficult 10 years.
We would expect that to grow in due course as we've seen prices drop in that area and value, so opportunities increase. This slide really talks about the demand in 2025 versus prior years. Why this is of interest is really it should show fairly whether price is going up or down, from number of applicants per property to buy, and number of tenants per property to let through our database. I think what you can see is that there was no price growth last year. There's a lot of properties that came to the market, and that was driven by increased cost of the last few years, increased cost of mortgages, perhaps increased costs, or VAT on school fees or build costs of developing houses people bought, as well as mortgages coming up off their fixed terms.
That led to a large group of people bringing their properties to the market and prepared to transact, which led to an increase in transactions last year. On the letting side, lettings really just follows affordability. It does track that, and when prices become too high, then people use workarounds. Either they stay at home longer, or more people share properties. More recently, we've seen this increase in HMOs, from your sort of traditional two-bedroom flat for young renters in cities. It also shows really that there has been some gains. There's been an increase in first-time buyers buying. Clearly that most affects the lettings market. All of that's meant that the price growth in recent years has abated, and is fairly flat at the moment, towards the end of last year and coming into this year.
In terms of our dividends, this slide shows the progressive dividends that we pay as a company or we aim to pay as a company. We pay quarterly dividends, unlike most of our peers, and we look to, as I said, pay progressive dividends. The blocks are the actual dividends, and then the shaded blocks are showing the couple of special dividends that we've paid since 2009 and a capital reorganization that took place in 2018. I think it's a helpful chart that is amplified by this chart on total shareholder returns. If you had bought a share in Winkworth on the January 1st, 2017, it had generated by the end of 2025, a return of 189%, and that's a simple total return, not looking at the reinvestment of dividends.
Next is just a refresh drivers of growth. We see these really as four areas, and we look at it as our business is based on getting the best possible people into it, best talented estate agents, and then supporting them to grow, really as sort of two ways and following them. That will define the sort of cadence of the growth of the business. Looking at each of these in turn. New franchising shows the ebb and flow of the offices. Effectively, this is grown through new offices in new locations with new talent. This is existing estate agents converting to Winkworth, and existing franchisees expanding into new offices. As you can see, in 2025, we had a number of all London-based.
Out of the four, three were existing franchisees opening further offices, which hopefully shows the health of the network, that people are looking to expand. It also means they'll be very strong franchisees going forward. We also resold seven. This is part of what we call portfolio management. We are a very old business, having started franchising in 1981. There's a certain element of retirement, and there in that moment, there's an opportunity if we can headhunt and find the right person to put in that office, then we can boost our return significantly, not only in that office, but in offices further afield that we'll talk about in future slides. This is the pipeline of nine. Actually, four have opened again, which we'll discuss in a second, four offices. We've got one further new office in the pipeline with four resales agreed.
This model is part of the menu of options for talent. Just to sort of refresh those out there's sort of two ways this operate. One was we looked at areas where there are lots of transactions in London and where perhaps there was a disconnect with our performance, and we found the best possible person in the situation. Certain situations that person doesn't have the funds to do it, and so we've acquired the business and then provided a share incentive for delivering performance. That represents two team, Crystal Palace and Pimlico. They're slightly different. They were driven through dispute. They arose, and we took them on board of our own account to bring in the right talent, boost revenues, and then exit in due course.
There's Development & Commercial Investment, which was looking at how that fitted with the offices to have to provide new homes, properties to the offices to sell, as well as a new revenue stream from us. Last year, we consolidated, though, this part of our business. We sold off Crystal Palace, which is an office we took over for a non-renewal situation. We've grown the revenue significantly from around GBP 200,000 to about GBP 850,000. It wasn't profitable, and we therefore felt that it was time to move it on to a neighboring franchisee who can maintain the presence for us, and we benefit from having a new office into their structure. We've exited that one.
DCI, we felt that it was a bit lumpy in the current marketplace, and therefore we found actually new talent that we're taking it on as a franchise again, with a franchisee of ours. We'll continue to benefit from them introducing properties to our franchise network and our franchise fee from that business without the costs ourselves. Really what that leaves us with is two really good businesses, which hopefully this year are significantly ahead where they stand last year, run by good operators, that were incentivized and should be earning their shares, their stakes, going forward. That is a sort of tighter proposition going into 2026 and beyond. Next slide. This is the offices we've opened this year. This is the assisted acquisition.
Where we have a talented operator, and we want to support them in their ambitions to grow because we believe they will do a good job and therefore we will all benefit. There's some bullet points here. He obviously opened in Leamington Spa. He started incredibly well. In terms of number one in market share for the last six months, he's only been there since 2024, which is a great feat. He has acquired a Peter Clarke business, which has four offices, Stratford-upon-Avon, Wellesbourne, Chipping Campden, Shipston-on-Stour. These are some neighboring areas with a very good lettings management business underneath it. We provide assisted acquisition of around GBP 500,000 to it, and it provided us a GBP 200,000 a year franchise fee going forward.
He not only has done very well for us in Leamington Spa, but he's sort of a known entity to us, having been a bit of a homegrown talent, having worked in our highly successful Islington office, in a previous incarnation at Winkworth. This slide tries to explain the portfolio management element of our business. Really this sort of follows the story where good people come on board, good things happen, and not only do they boost revenue in the offices, they come on board in quite quickly if perhaps the office has become a bit tired. Obviously they then go on to open other offices, and that then generates further income.
Not only that, they then actually, which isn't on the slide, boost their neighbors, and there's a general network effect of sort of dropping these gems into the network and watching the good that can happen. This really tries to portray the story since 2018 of where we've done that. We look to invest to make this happen now, because again, if it's the right person, we're signing 10 + 10-year contracts, that investment is well worth it. I mean, Andrew, do you have?
I suppose just to sort of give it a bit of a financial focus. In 2018, the offices that are identified as being open in 2018 generated about GBP 9 million of network revenue. By 2025, the offices that were open generated GBP 18 million. Getting the right people in to run the offices and give them the opportunity to open other offices has a very positive impact on our network.
Yeah, I think for us, it's a way of deploying our cash. There is a lower-risk version of this because it's within London where we have lots of franchisees, and the name is very well established, and they're more doer-uppers. It is hopefully on the lower-risk element of generating growth. [Turning to] the next slide conveys hopefully what this does. This shows our ambitions is that we're in the top three in each marketplace we operate in, and that we set up our business to provide a platform for that to happen, and we get the people in who can then deliver on that platform. Hopefully, this gives you a long-term picture of that happening. Particularly in London really, where most of our activity is focused because it's an older network.
There's sort of more opportunities for those that perhaps have run their course, and looking for the golf course, to introduce new blood and a bit of zest to some of them. That's been going on over the last nine years. In 2016, there were nine in the top three. This is sort of by Rightmove in terms of market share for sales agreed in their respective areas. There are nine in our London network and in 2025, there are 26 of our London network in that top three by market share. Overall, in the general Winkworth network in 2016, there were 13, and 2025, there are 36. Plenty more to do.
That I suppose shows the improving quality of the network, not just the revenue growth, but in market share positions, it's getting stronger on an individual office basis, hopefully every year. [Turning to the] operating area performance. This is really again, to kind of share a bit of good news as the model. This is how the model stacks up, in its operating area, and how the offices within that model work. This is compared to the top 10 in the area that we operate. This is the second nine, if that makes sense, in the area. We're more likely to agree a sale on a property, more likely to exchange a property, less likely to withdraw a property, less likely to have a property fall through.
Perhaps most impressively of all, in 2025, Winkworth had the highest conversion rate from a new instruction or new listing of a property to exchange out of the top 10 estate agents in our operating area. Ultimately that's the job, and we are the best in our area at doing it, which is getting clients' houses sold, which hopefully shows the effectiveness of our franchise model in a competitive marketplace. Just to touch on digital evolution of the business, as we've sort of probably talked about, we always believe in evolving, always, and digital is an important part of that and investment in digital.
We are led by the people and are very much a people business. Those relationships with our clients are utmost. We seek to support those individuals, those talented people in our network with good technology, where applicable and where it doesn't get in the way of those relationships. Broadly, the new area is artificial intelligence and adapting to that to allow us to embed it in our systems where relevant and where it can add value, and where franchisees can benefit from it. Central to that is the website, which we will sort of talk about in the next slide. That is the sort of engine, if you like, of the Winkworth network. There is a big reboot going on. We're investing more than ever before.
We need to change it to become more searchable, for more AI-friendly, to facilitate systems being put onto it that are useful, and to allow it to be searched through AI more easily, which is important, obviously, ultimately to deliver more valuations for our offices. That's one of the sort of central bits of work that's going on this year. Beyond that, we obviously do have a digital stack for offices, which different providers provide different solutions for areas that we continually update to ensure they have the tools they need to make their lives more simple, and are always working on improvements to our systems so we can provide a better service to our franchisees, as well as helping franchisees understand their businesses more. As I said, really this is the engine room of the network.
It delivers. What's great to see on this one is 2020 was obviously a sort of boom year for leads. We said last year was certainly not a boom year. The leads we're generating in our network are increasing, have surpassed that. We're talking about 6,500 valuations a year going to that network, which is around 60 an office, which obviously very much validates any 8% fee. If you say that they would sell 50%-60% of those instead of 40 properties being sold, generating revenue from them coming from the Winkworth website. That remains a central focus for our investment. Really, looking at 2025 and looking 2026 and beyond. We saw very strong first half of the year, slightly distorted by stamp duty tax changes.
We were hurt by the uncertainty ahead of the Autumn Statement, which perhaps came earlier and shut the year down earlier than expected, although perhaps not being quite as dramatic as some of the news flow had suggested. In spite of all that, we continue to, as we always do through the market cycles, execute our plan. It's a very simple plan of getting the best people we can on board and backing them. We will continue to do that. To do that, we have to make sure we always evolve, and we're investing in our platform to make it competitive and a place where those good people want to come.
We moved our dividend up by 7%, and that is hopefully we continue to do that for our shareholders in 2026 and beyond. I think that is our presentation. Obviously if you have any questions, it'd be great to answer them.
Thank you both for updating investors today. Could I please remind investors to submit their questions just by using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen? For your reference, a recording of today's presentation will be available on the Investor Meet Company platform shortly after the meeting has ended. Dominic, Andrew, as you can see, we've received a number of questions during today's presentation. If I could please hand back to you to read out the questions and give responses where appropriate to do so, and I'll pick up from you at the end.
Thank you very much indeed. First question, congratulations on the Peter Clarke deal. How did this come about, and can we expect more similar transactions?
Yeah. We have a team who are looking at suitable acquisitions for our franchise network to help our franchisees realize those acquisitions and us provide support, obviously, where there needs be. That was something that landed nicely with a very capable franchisee that we were prepared to back and was a high-quality business. Hopefully there will be more. It is something that we do make sure that we look carefully at that blend of the right franchisee in the right position at the right time to make the acquisition as well as the acquisition being there.
The first half of 2025 was very strong in sales. Does this make H1 2025 comparison difficult?
Yes, it probably will do because the stamp duty. I think it's started pretty well 2026, but obviously it doesn't have the surge in March of people rushing to make the savings by completing their property sale before stamp duty change. That's what we expect. It'll be a different comparison, but obviously it'll be a different year overall with many different dynamics. It's all part of our considerations.
With London sales slowing and the share price down since May 2025, how do you see this affecting your revenues going forward into 2026, 2027?
Actually, I'm sorry. This year started pretty well. We're now in a sort of fairly, I suppose what's going on externally is sort of slightly out of our control, and property market continues to be holding up pretty well. I suppose there is a big factor about how long it goes on for. I suppose people are perhaps looking at that and thinking that there might be a bit of uncertainty out there and therefore share price is adjusted. The model we are is, I think, a very strong model. It's been through all sorts of cycles. We continue with our goal of investing through those cycles to get the right people on board and the rest will follow. If we get the right people on board, the revenue will follow, and then the share price will follow that.
Thanks, Dominic. What are Management's broader thoughts now on company-owned branches after exiting Crystal Palace following a seemingly disappointing profit performance? Is the Board now starting to favor returning to 100% franchisee operation?
Yeah. I think it's always been this menu idea of a menu of options. There are different tools to deploy for different situations, and I think we see it as one of those tools to deploy. I say Crystal Palace came about through a non-renewal, actually. It was a failed situation that either we would have lost that office or we could turn it around. Yes, it didn't make the profits along the way, but we didn't lose any money on it, and we've got a significantly boosted revenue and a successful office going forward. I think everything's different. We're always going to stay true to our franchising model as first and foremost and not be carried away in opening offices or things that would override that because we understand the business we are, which is, you know, low fixed costs, dividend, progressive dividend-paying franchise business.
We do think that perhaps it's a useful part of the mix for certain situations to improve quality network, improve therefore the standard of the network and the future prospects of it. Are franchisees encouraged to buy shares in the company to keep invested? If not, why not? Yeah, I think a number of franchisees do have shares in the company. I suppose we don't, which as a public company, they're very aware of our results that we share with them and that's up to them to ascertain whether they wish to invest in the company or not. Also, how do you ensure quality control as the network expands? I suppose that's hopefully the skill we've developed over many years. It's a good combination really. I think it all comes down to the right people getting in at the start.
If you've got the right person to start, then everything follows. Clearly, that won't happen 100% of the time because nothing's ever 100%. In those situations, we have very much evolved contracts in place to uphold the best standards, and we have teams here to look at the offices that we feel standards may not be being met, and if needs be, we'll address it. I suppose that has happened over the years as well. I suppose that's part of what our skill set as a Management Team, alongside the COO is of doing that, ensuring that we maintain those standards.
What is your appetite for deploying your cash balance toward acquisitions versus returning capital?
I think we want to pay progressive dividend. I think some are confused, much as me, I think. We do want to do acquisitions. I say that's the cadence.
The critical part is the fact that they're right and they will generate the sort of returns that we are looking for as a business. To come back on the earlier question, we need to make sure that they're the right people coming into the network. It's not growth at any price. There is a benefit, we think, to having quality people in the network who are delivering in their local areas. What is the likely impact of the Renters' Rights Bill on lettings in 2026?
I think that the impact's been coming through for 2025 and 2026 for some time now. I think what you're seeing is some landlords exiting because they aren't happy with new regulations. I think that some people are worried that there'll be issues with attaining possession of their properties. I think you'll see an ongoing consolidation of the sector. Really, I suppose it will adjust and I think we're sort of in a peak moment now. So far, you're seeing property management revenue, as I showed in the slide earlier, sort of overcome a decline in lettings revenue last year as those landlords look to have their properties managed to deal with the new legislation. That outweighs perhaps those that might be exiting the sector.
I think you'll address the legislation. I think one of the challenges is the taxation changes in the buy-to-let sector that meant that there's less leverage is possible for a buy-to-let investor. It's less open to some. I think that's probably a factor in a slightly reduced sector to years gone by. I think it'll stabilize post the legislation coming into place.
Thanks for a candid presentation. Since the Israel war started, the people who left U.K. during the last couple of years, are they returning back to the U.K.? What's been your experience? Probably a bit too early to say anyway.
Yeah. I think there's been stories of, suppose 100,000 people returning from the Middle East for rentals. I think we've seen the odd rental contract taken up, particularly in short-term rentals in Central London. I wouldn't say we're seeing a huge amount of people coming back to U.K. now, and I suppose that's one of the big questions for prime Central London is what's making sure it has international appeal, because that's sort of what's been missing for the last 10 years.
Do you expect to see further consolidation in the sector after the moves made by Foxtons and TPFG?
I think that the consolidation will slow, actually. I think there's several big agencies and there always have been in every era, looking to grow through acquisition, and we are no different in terms of we're looking to grow by acquisition. I think there'll be slightly less, but I think largely with a slightly flatter lettings revenue, rather than the automatic growth of old, and I think there'll be less aggregators looking to acquire at big premiums those books, which perhaps opens the door a bit more for us to convert some to Winkworth to grow the market share and to acquire, I suppose, hopefully values that we feel are slightly more appropriate.
What has to happen for Greater London transactions to move significantly beyond 73,000 a year?
That's the magic question. I think it was obviously significantly higher. I think it was 123,000 in 2008. I think that's about right. The question is where are those transactions gone? I think it shows the potential for transactions. Clearly, there have been several factors. I think London was, dare I say, affected by Brexit and stamp duty. I think those two things have affected it, and I think affordability has been working through those changes. They say Central's the most acute version, but really there hasn't been much price growth for a long time in London. As the prices got to the point where they had to be worked through, so rather than crashing, they just stayed basically flat, and that meant that they've become more affordable. As they become more affordable, transactions will pick up.
Thank you very much indeed. That's the end of the questions.
Thank you both for answering questions from investors today. Before we ask investors to share their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company, Dominic, could I please just ask you for a few closing comments?
Yeah, sure. I think I repeated a few times really that the company is set up on the premise that we want best-in-class people in our network, and that when best-in-class people join our network, then good things will follow and will flow from that. That really is our primary focus. To do that, we invest in our business to make it appealing to those people. Yeah, I think if that's the one headline to lead with that would be that.
That's great. Thank you both once again for your presentation this afternoon. Could I please ask investors not to close this session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback, which helps the company better understand your views and expectations. On behalf of the Management Team of Winkworth PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.