Funding constraints continue to hamper commercial property market: LandMark White chairman

LandMark White Group chairman Stuart Gregory has given a gloomy assessment of the state of the commercial property market noting that accessing funding from lenders remains a key constraint.

“In a sense I could simply refer you to my address from last year. In this post-global financial crisis environment very little seems to have changed,” is how Gregory began his AGM address to shareholders this week.

Gregory says that while the residential valuation business continued to perform well, “the recurring theme continues to be the limited lending into the commercial and development markets, the markets that most affect our commercial valuation practice”.

LandMark White managed profits of $800,000 for the 2012 financial year to June 30, down 6.4% from $900,000 in the previous financial year.

Gregory says these results were achieved in “another very difficult year in the property industry”.

“The market remains patchy and for property valuations is dependent on the availability of funding and the appetite of financial institutions to lend into both commercial and residential markets,” said Gregory.

However, while residential lending remained “reasonably positive” he says the group “cannot anticipate with any certainty the banking industry’s support or otherwise of the commercial property market”.

LandMark White declared a dividend of 3¢ per share for the financial year.