Australand Property Group (ALZ) today announced a 20.9% increase...

Australand Property Group (ALZ) today announced a 20.9% increase in profit for the year ended 31 December 2006. The group recorded profit after tax of $243.1 million for the year, up from the 2005 result of $201 million.

The group said its Investment property division generated net income of $96 million, a 37% increase on the 2005 net income.

The group reported that the favourable results for the division was assisted by the sale of 11 industrial properties in Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, accompanied by the increase in unrealised net gain from fair value adjustments to the investment portfolio.

Australand said its Commercial and Industrial Division delivered a pre-tax profit of $40 million, a 26.1% increase on the previous year.

The property group said its construction for the year included 27 industrial properties, 4 suburban commercial offices and 6 land subdivision properties, with 70.3% of the division's profitability contributed by wholly owned projects.

On the downside, the group said its Residential Division recorded a profit before tax of $105.7 million, a 22% slip on the previous year’s results.

The group said that three interest rate increases and higher fuel prices contributed to declining consumer confidence, which had a bigger negative impact on residential projects, particularly in Sydney.

Despite the company’s poor performance in its residential division, the group said that its aim is improved profitability, but acknowledged that improvement is dependant upon a recovery in the Sydney residential real estate market.

The group advised that it anticipates contributions from both the Commercial and Industrial and Investment Property divisions would be higher for 2007 than 2006.

The group said that this would allow for the annual dividend distribution to remain at 16.5c per share.