Shares in estate agent Foxtons (LSE: FOXT) have slumped by 22% today after it released a profit warning. This follows a decline in the company’s share price of 19% on Friday and means that it has lost 36% of its value in less than 12 hours of trading.
Clearly, Brexit is bad news for Foxtons and for the wider UK property market. Foxtons has today stated that the uncertainty that acted as a brake on the London residential property market in the run up to the EU referendum is now set to continue until at least the end of 2016. As such, the upturn the company anticipated following the referendum now looks unlikely to materialise and as a result of this, Foxtons now expects its 2016 sales and profitability to be significantly lower than 2015 levels.
Although Foxtons has a robust lettings business that should provide a degree of protection in a downturn, the reality is that the UK property market could be headed for a very challenging period. House prices are already highly overvalued, with the price-to-average earnings ratio being at its second-highest ever level. The highest level was at the peak of the housing bubble at the start of the credit crunch, with prices then falling by around 20% in the following couple of years.
Looking ahead, a fall of that nature would be very unsurprising, since the UK leaving the EU will take at least two years and during that time both domestic and foreign buyers are likely to delay property purchases. Lower transaction volumes plus the potential for higher interest rates mean that Foxtons is likely to operate in hugely challenging conditions. Therefore, it seems to be a stock to avoid at the present time.
Think long term
Also updating the market today was easyJet (LSE: EZJ). Its shares are down by 17% and this takes their fall since the close on Thursday to over 28%. Clearly, easyJet’s outlook is now much more uncertain after Brexit and the company now anticipates that demand for flights will come under pressure. However, easyJet has also been hit recently by specific factors that are causing its profitability to be hurt.
For example, easyJet experienced 1,061 cancellations in the third quarter of the year, with this being due to strike action in France as well as congestion issues at Gatwick and severe weather. The Egyptair tragedy has also dampened demand for flights among consumers, while recent movements in fuel prices and exchange rates have also added £25m of additional costs to the current year’s results.
Due to these factors, the near-term outlook for easyJet remains very challenging. But it continues to be a very high quality company that’s doing all of the right things in a difficult operating environment. As such, now could be a great time to buy it and with easyJet trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 8, there seems to be considerable upside for patient, long-term investors.
