The Connells Group has announced pre-tax profits of £50.2 million in 2013 compared to £35.6 in 2012.

This represents a 41% improvement in profits for the year.

The Group’s estate agency business continued to record high levels of activity, seeing a 23% hike in home sales with average house prices rising by just under 9% for the year.

It also recorded a 23% increase in rental instructions as well as a 28% increase in the number of new tenancies arranged.

In Mortgage Services, Connells increased its mortgage consultant headcount to almost 500 and saw a 38% increase in the number of mortgages it arranged for customers.

The Group’s Land and New Homes divisions recorded over 5,500 new homes sales in 2013 and its combined land transactions for the year will provide over 6,000 new homes plots in years to come.

Connells Survey & Valuation also made significant investments in the year, unveiling a £6 million expansion programme in December 2013. Having increased its surveying capacity by 30% throughout last year this further investment will add an additional 100 Chartered Surveyors into the business.

“Connells Group’s outstanding results in 2013 are the culmination of continued investment, a lot of hard work from the exceptional individuals we have in our business and a well documented upturn in the housing market last year,” says David Livesey, chief executive for Connells Group. “Testimony to all these factors, we started 2014 with a sales pipeline that was over 45% higher than the previous year and sold more homes in January 2014 than any month in 2013.”