This is a sharp fall from from the £162m reported for the same period last year. In a trading update, Countrywide said that this is a reflection of the “significantly lower entry pipeline in UK and London sales coming into 2018”.

The firm said it was “encouraged” by the progress being made in both sales and lettings, with improvements in market share from the final quarter of last year.

Countrywide also emphasised it had “moved swiftly to restore expertise” to its team with the appointment of Paul Creffield as group operations director in January.

 

Profit warnings

 

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The firm’s chief executive officer Alison Platt left that month, after Countrywide issued its second profit warning in the space of three months, leading interim executive director Peter Long to declare that the group had “lost its way”.

In its trading update, Countrywide said it now had “experienced sector professionals” filling all roles at area and regional director level.

The business’s share price dropped from 105.4p at open to as low as 97.1p but at the time of writing had somewhat recovered at 102.4p.