LSL Lsl Property Services Plc

RNS Number:9011S
LSL Property Services
23 April 2008


For Immediate Release                                            23 April 2008


                       LSL Property Services PLC ("LSL")

                  Interim Management Statement & AGM Statement

LSL, a leading provider of residential estate agency, financial and surveying
services, is today holding its 2008 Annual General Meeting and issues this first
Interim Management Statement in respect of trading for the first quarter ended
31 March 2008.

Roger Matthews, Chairman of LSL, will make the following statement:

"We are pleased to report that against a backdrop of an extremely challenging
housing market, overall the Group is performing in line with management
expectations for the period, confirming the resilience of LSL's business model
in the face of a market downturn. This resilience is most evident in our
Surveying division.

In the first quarter ended 31 March 2008.

   * Group turnover for the period was down by 3%
   * Surveying turnover was up by 15%
   * Estate Agency and Financial Services turnover was down by 16%

Surveying:

Our Surveying division's activity and turnover is slightly ahead of our
expectations and is underpinned by the new contract wins with Cheltenham &
Gloucester plc and Barclays Bank plc, which started in the second half of 2007.
In addition, the integration synergies identified with these contracts have
started to come through and will deliver significant full year benefits. We also
continue to benefit from strong relationships with leading lenders.

Estate Agency & Financial Services:

Trading in our Estate Agency division has been slightly below management
expectations but continues to deliver cost efficiencies commensurate with lower
activity levels.

This division has been affected by the slowdown in the housing market. However,
Estate Agency trading has been supported by the growth of counter cyclical
revenue streams including lettings and the development of a new repossessions
sales unit, both of which are making good progress.

Financial Services income in the first quarter has been supported by a marked
increase in re-mortgage activity and continues to make a valuable contribution
to the business.

Outlook:

The Group has made a satisfactory start to the financial year despite a very
difficult market. In particular our surveying division has proven to be
resilient in the year to date through its flexible operating model and is
expected to make further progress in the face of a continuing market downturn.

However we expect market conditions to remain challenging for our Estate Agency
division, with the outturn for the housing market in 2008 extremely difficult to
predict.

The Group is well placed to deliver significant growth when market conditions
improve and to take advantage of value creating acquisition opportunities which
are likely to arise as a result of the current market."


For further information please contact:

Simon Embley, Group Chief Executive Officer
Dean Fielding, Group Finance Director
LSL Property Services plc                                    01904 715 324

Richard Darby, Nicola Cronk, Catherine Breen
Buchanan Communications                                      020 7466 5000


Notes to Editors:

LSL Property Services plc is one of the leading residential property services
companies in the UK and provides a broad range of services to its clients who
are principally mortgage lenders, as well as buyers and sellers of residential
properties.

For further information, please visit our website: www.lslps.co.uk



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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