Knight Frank staff earn £46m in bonuses

Published on Sunday 7 December 2008 20:03

SENIOR staff at estate agency and commercial property group Knight Frank pocketed a total of £46 million in bonuses, despite the collapse in value in its key residential and commercial property markets.

The firm's "proprietary" partners received an average of 780,000 each based on "robust" performance for the year ended 30 April, 2008. The group reported turnover up 17 per cent to 333.9m although profits were down 7 per cent to 59.2m. As a result, bonuses were down on last year's bumper 1.1m average pay-out.

The figures reflect only the beginning of the fall in values that have since ravaged the UK property markets.

Nevertheless, Nick Thomlinson, senior partner and chairman of the Knight Frank Group, said he remained cautiously optimistic about the current year's trading.

"We are now seven months into our new financial year and the world is a different place," he conceded.

"However, in the first half of the new financial year we have traded profitably."

Knight Frank has Scottish offices focusing on residential and commercial property in Edinburgh, the Borders, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

&#149 Today brings new predictions of pain for the property industry, exceeding the downturns in the 1990s and the 1970s.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warns commercial property capital values could fall by a further 25 per cent, meaning values would have halved since their peak as rents face a steep decline.

Rics expects the commercial property market to see at least 16 per cent declines in capital values in 2009 and a further drop of up to 10 percent in 2010.

Since the onset of the credit crunch in June 2007, capital values have already fallen 25 per cent.

The Institution believes financing will remain a problem for investors through to 2011, but the office sector is set to be hit the worst as demand for space from banks, finance and insurance companies continues to decline.