Real estate service provider Savills has predicted that residential sales will remain strong in the coming months amid a decline in the commercial property market.

Announcing that profits rose by 7 per cent to £33.2 million in the first six months of the year, Savills chairman, Peter Smith, said that the firm predicted the residential property market in the UK would "remain resilient" despite the impact recent financial turmoil could have on commercial property sales.

"Overall, given the broad spread of our business, we are cautiously confident of producing a good result for the year as a whole, in line with our expectations," he added.

Savills predicts that high-end London properties will see growth of 25 per cent for the year and forecasts that growth next year will fall to 15 per cent.

Stockmarket advisory firm, Oriel Securities, told Reuters that "despite well-publicised concerns regarding the state of the mainstream housing market in the UK", the market for high-end homes in London and the countryside had been "extremely buoyant" this year.