Corrected: Credit crunch hits real estate service cos
Tight capital markets that are restricting lending helped dramatically drive down earnings at two of the biggest real estate services companies, CB Richard Ellis Group Inc (CBG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the companies said on Tuesday.
Shares in CB Richard Ellis, the world’s largest commercial real estate brokerage, fell 12 percent in after-hours trading.
The tighter lending standards have made borrowing for commercial real estate purchases either difficult and expensive or downright impossible. In the United States, commercial real estate sales have dropped by around 70 percent.
Most of the deals getting done are either seller financed, or already have assumable mortgage debt. More often, unless they are financially strapped, owners are refusing to sell at the prices that the higher financing costs demand.
The lower volume of sales has crimped property brokers’ fees and commissions same day payday loans. After the market close, Jones Lang said its quarterly profits tumbled 69 percent to $24.5 million, or 73 cents a share, from $77.9 million, or $2.23 per share a year earlier.
At CB Richard Ellis Group, second-quarter net income plunged 88 percent to $16.6 million, or 8 cents per share, from $141.1 million, or 59 cents per share.
Excluding one-time charges, Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis would have earned $33.2 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with $157.3 million, or 66 cents last year, still far from the 44 cents analysts on average had expected, according to Reuters Estimates.