Commercial and residential property news
Lend Lease delivers strong half year profit result amid tough market conditions
* Statutory Profit After Tax up 49% to A$259.6m
* EPS on Operating Profit up 60% to 65.5 cents
* Net Operating Profit After Tax up 61% to A$262.8m Interim dividend up 23% to 43 cents a share
Half Year Results – “Disciplined strategy leads to improving opportunities”
ING Office Fund (IOF or the Fund), today announced an operating profit of $140.4 million for the six months ended 31 December 2007.
Read moreThe Westfield Group (ASX:WDC) today announced its full year results, reporting operational segment earnings for the year ended 31 December 2007 of $1.79 billion, up 11.6% over the prior year. This represents 96.12 cents per security, an increase of 6.0% on a constant currency basis.
Read more* Solid performance from diverse operations across 13 countries
* Proven funds platform, raising A$1.2 billion of equity and debt in 2H08
* AUM of A$20.5 billion, diversified by sector, geography and business line
* Continued focus on integration and consolidation of Australasian, European and UK platforms
Macquarie CountryWide Trust (ASX: MCW) today announced a 2.5 per cent increase in distributable earnings to A$97.7 million for the six months to 31 December 2007, representing 7.35 cents per unit. Earnings before losses on asset sales were 7.76 cents per unit. The Trust distributed 7.80 cents per unit to investors on 22 February 2008.
Read morePelorus Property Group (ASX Code: PPI), which has initiated a bid to take over management of one of Centro’s unlisted property syndicates, Centro MCS16, has today released its half year results.
Read moreAspen Announces Strong Half Year Result
Aspen Group (ASX: APZ) is pleased to report a strong performance for the half year to 31 December 2007, with the Group’s underlying net profit after tax up 63% at $19.0 million. Contributions across all business divisions have combined to produce this result, leaving the Group well placed to record a strong full year performance.
Read moreGalileo Japan Funds Management Limited (‘GJFML’), the responsible entity for the Galileo Japan Trust (the Trust) is pleased to provide details of the Trust’s interim result for the period ended 31 December 2007.
Read moreDB RREEF Trust (ASX: DRT) today announced it had acquired Deutsche Bank’s 50% interest in its management company, DB RREEF Funds Management Ltd, and rebranded to DEXUS Property Group.
Read moreCentro Properties Group (Centro) announced today that its financiers both in Australia and the US have further extended finance arrangements as follows:
Read moreCopyright of home designs will come under scrutiny this year in the courts, after Australia’s eleventh biggest home builder, Porter Davis, launched another round of legal action against the third biggest, Metricon.
Read moreAustraland today announced a strong result for the year ended 31 December 2007, delivering a statutory profit of $269.2 million, including unrealised gains in property revaluations.
Read moreBeleaguered property developer MFS Living and Leisure group is expected to quietly sell the Melbourne Aquarium in Flinders Street, as well as aquariums on the Sunshine Coast, Bangkok, Shanghai and Busan, as it struggles to boost its balance sheet and survive a fallout from its parent company, MFS Limited.
Read moreFINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
* Half year net profit after tax of $388.4 million, an increase of 86.4 per cent
* Half year operating profit after tax of $215.0 million, an increase of 41.2 per cent
* Half year distribution of 16.45 cents per stapled security, an increase of 3.1 per cent
* 5.8 per cent rise in NTA per stapled security to $4.02 from $3.80 as at 31 December 20061
* Activities under control increased from $26.3 billion at 30 June 2007 to $27.8 billion
* Gearing reduced to 29.8 per cent2
Leading Australian property finance and investment group, Ashe Morgan Winthrop, has announced the appointment of two new senior executives directly supporting the managing director, Michael Rothner.
Read more�� Confirms FY08 guidance of 5% EPS growth
Stockland delivered a strong performance for the half year ended 31 December 2007
(1H08), recording a net profit attributable to security holders of $672.5 million, including
property revaluations and other non-operating items.
HEADLINE RESULTS
�� Operating profit* increased by 10.7% to $324.6 million.
�� Earnings per security* increased by 4.2% to 22.4 cents
�� Dividend/distribution per security increased by 5.1% to 22.6 cents#
* (before certain significant items)
Macquarie Group Limited (Macquarie, ASX:MQG) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Allan Moss said today that subject to market conditions, Macquarie’s profit for the year to 31 March, 2008 is expected to be at least $A1.8 billion, which would be 23% up on the prior year.
Read moreThe roaring pace with which the commercial property markets developed momentum in the final months of 2007, has come to a grinding halt, as the full effects of interest rate rises, share market volatility and a dip in business and consumer sentiment takes its toll on a stunned market.
Read moreThe Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced today that the Official Cash Rate will increase 25 basis points to 7 per cent.
Read moreSpeaking to a full house at a Urban Development Institute of Australia function at Crown Casino last Friday, St George Bank Head of Economic Research Steven Milch said he expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to lift official interest rates when it meets this week, despite the US Federal Reserve continuing to cut rates in the United States.
Read moreAllco Principals Investments Pty Ltd (API), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Allco Principals Trust (APT) holds 45,802,729 shares in Allco Finance Group (AFG) as previously advised in the substantial shareholder notice dated 5 April 2007. These shares are secured in favour of four margin lenders.
Read moreAt its meeting yesterday, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 6.75 per cent. As part of wider changes to communication practices which the Board has adopted (see separate announcement on communication), it was further decided that a statement explaining the decision would be released.
Read moreThe Commonwealth Bank today announced that as a result of increased wholesale funding costs in financial markets it is lifting interest rates on its variable home loan by 0.10 per cent per annum to 8.67 per cent per annum (8.79 per cent per annum Comparison Rate*).
Read moreThe Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has released its annual summary of the residential and commercial real estate market today, providing a unique insight into what the market has done over the 2006-07 financial year.
Read moreThe median price for a house in Melbourne surged 25 per cent in 2007, to $463,488, making it the fastest growing of all Australian capital cities, according to new research by Australian Property Monitors.
Read moreThe GPT Group is pleased to announce the establishment of GPT Halverton’s Dutch Active Fund (DAF), following the successful completion of the first equity raise for the Fund. A total of €83 million of equity was raised for the Fund, which attracted a number of institutional European investors.
Read moreRising interest rates will once again haunt the newly elected Labor Government, with speculation the Reserve Bank of Australia will lift the official rate again next month – for the third time in six months.
Read moreA new study measuring housing affordability in 227 cities around the world has found that Australia and New Zealand are the least affordable places to buy a home.
Read moreBecton Property Group (“Becton” or “the Group”) (ASX: BEC) is pleased to announce that it has acquired Lachlan Property Group (“Lachlan”).
Read moreStockland Halladale, the recently established diversified property group created through the acquisition of Halladale Group plc by Stockland, announces it has agreed to purchase 3-8 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, for £21.25M.
Read moreStockland today announced the sale of its 50 per cent interest in three New Zealand shopping centres to AMP New Zealand Property Retail Limited (AMP) for A$322 million, as it looks at re-investment opportunities in key strategic growth areas in Australia and the UK.
Read moreAndrew Scott has today resigned as Chief Executive Officer and as a director of Centro.
Read moreThe Westpac Melbourne Institute of consumer confidence plunged by 8.3 per cent this month, to land at 103.1 point, its lowest point for more than a year.
Read moreA new survey released this week suggests business travellers could pay up to 14 per cent more for hotel rooms in Sydney, and up to 4 per cent in Melbourne for their local accommodation.
Read moreMore than 35 property industry players including former Colliers International chairman Bill McHarg, Jones Lang LaSalle managing director Andrew Wood and Becton chief executive Hamish MacDonald will ride their push bikes from Canberra to Melbourne to raise money for the Starlight Foundation and Monash Newborn Intensive Care Unit.
Read moreLadies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the fourth Annual General Meeting of the Green Building Council of Australia.
My name is Tony Arnel, and I am Chair of the Green Building Council of Australia and Chair of this meeting.
Read moreThe skills shortage has once more registered as a top issue in Australia’s construction industry, according to a Davis Langton sentiment survey released this week.
Read moreExecutives at Melbourne-based listed property group Australian Public Trustees will be on every agent’s Christmas card list this year, with speculation the relatively unknown fund manager is formalising a $230 million purchase of at least three east coast office buildings, being sold by the recently delisted Investa Property Group.
Read moreCharter Hall, one of Australia’s leading property fund managers and property developers has been awarded the exclusive right to negotiate the purchase of the Nine Network’s headquarters in both Sydney and Melbourne following a tender process.
Read moreResidential rental vacancy rates have averaged an all-time low of 1.9% across Australia for the past two and a half years, according to data published today in the Mortgage Choice/REIA Real Estate Market Facts report, September quarter edition.
This compares with a 20-year average of 3.6%. The industry benchmarks anything below a 3.0% vacancy rate as indicative of an undersupply of rental accommodation.
Read morePelorus Property Group (ASX code: PPI) has today launched a $60 million wholesale fund – Pelorus Opportunistic Fund.
Read moreThe buildings where Graham Kennedy let loose his famous “faark” crow-call and where fans of Bandstand learned the twist and the stomp are believed to be close to sold as Channel Nine capitalises on its inner-suburban properties in Melbourne and Sydney.
Read moreThe Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced today that the Official Cash Rate will remain unchanged this month. Therefore the Official Cash Rate continues at 6.75%.
Read moreMacarthurCook Fund Management Limited is pleased to announce that stapled securities in the MacarthurCook Industrial Property Fund (“the Fund”) will
Read moreThe Board of Investa Property Group is pleased to announce today the appointment of John Thomas as Investa’s new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.
Read moreBuilding approvals were down by 2.8 per cent in October due to a 10.4 per cent dip in the multi-unit segment. Detached house approvals posted a very small rise of 0.9 per cent to a level of 9,458.
Read moreMacquarie Office Trust (ASX:MOF) today announced an update of the Trust’s activities outlining leasing success and capital management initiatives for the period since 1 July 2007 and providing an outlook supporting continued solid performance from the Trust’s portfolio.
Read moreValad Property Group has made $42.9 million selling two industrial Melbourne industrial assets it bought two years ago.
Read moreANZ Rabinov Property Management Limited (‘ARPML’) as the Manager of the ANZ Rabinov Property Trust (‘the Trust’) has today announced that it will be conducting a strategic review of the continued ownership and management of the Trust. This follows a number of unsolicited approaches from several parties who have highlighted their interest in acquiring the Trust.
Read moreMacarthurCook Investment Managers (Asia) Limited, the Manager of MacarthurCook Industrial REIT ( MI-REIT ), is pleased to announce that MI-REIT, through its Trustee, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited, has signed a sale and purchase agreement to acquire an office and warehouse facility in the Tai Seng industrial precinct for a total consideration of $S25.0 million.
Read moreMacquarie Office Trust (ASX:MOF) and JPMorgan Asset Management – Real Estate (JPMorgan Asset Management), announced today that institutional investors advised by JPMorgan Asset Management acquired a 50 per cent interest in the joint venture which owns the Wachovia Financial Center in Miami, Florida. Macquarie Office Trust retains the other 50 per cent interest in the venture which it originally acquired in 2004 as part of the Principal America Office portfolio.
Read moreThe REIA has called on the Rudd Government to promptly appoint a dedicated Minister for Housing within Cabinet, to reflect the wide ranging socio-economic implications of housing. REIA President Noel Dyett said there was an unprecedented level of interest in housing affordability during the Federal election campaign which had brought the issue firmly onto the national agenda. The REIA looks forward to the Rudd Government implementing its housing affordability policies as soon as possible.
Read moreIt is yet again disastrous news for home buyers, with home loan affordability at its lowest in the 22 years that the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has published affordability data. The September quarter 2007 edition of the Deposit Power/ REIA Home Loan Affordability Report found that 36.6% of family income was required to meet average home loan repayments.
Read morePrices for house and other dwellings across much of Australia are moving upwards, according to September quarter price data released today by the Real Estate Institute of Australia.
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The Property Council of Australia Portfolio Weighting Survey is a six monthly survey of institutional property funds, which looks at trends in the institutional ownership by sector and geographic region.
The survey tracks the following investments: CBD Office, Non CBD Office, Retail, Industrial, Agriculture, Residential, Listed Property Trusts, International Property, Cash and **Other (including investments in development site, car parks, petrol stations, or units in unlisted trusts).
Read more‘Housing affordability, now at critically low levels right across Australia, must be on the election agenda as a priority,’ says Graham Joyce, President of the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA).
‘The Government recognised the significant socio-economic problems which arise as a result of declining home loan affordability and convened a Productivity Commission inquiry into first home ownership in 2004. Since then, things have only got worse.
Read moreA legal battle between Metricon Homes, Australia’s third biggest builder, and Porter Davis Homes, the eleventh biggest – is set to get even more heated.
Read moreBecton Property Group has paid $63.4 million for Sydney based Lachlan Property Group. The deal increases the value of the
Read moreMORE THAN two thirds of individual investors recorded a net rental loss in the 2006 – 2007 calendar year, resulting in a 25 per cent increase in the number of investors negative gearing their properties.
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