R & M Diminished
Is your ‘too good to be true’ property deal rally sustainable?
According to Napier & Blakeley managing director Alastair Walker, lack of capital post GFC has lead to a significant neglect of repair and maintenance (R&M) and Capex spend. Having worked on property due diligence valued at plus $10B since the GFC, Napier & Blakeley has seen only nominal spend on upkeep compared with previous years.
Reduced Life Expectancy and Premature Capex
Recent technical due diligence and condition assessments have also found that the lack of R&M and Capex budgets for economic life driven plant and equipment overhauls and refurbishments has resulted in increased short and medium term Capex.
To put this in context, without appropriate R&M, major plant items may have an economic expected life of (say) 25 years, however the reduction of removal of maintenance can result in a major shortfall in expected life to around 15 years.
The Reaction
Astute purchasers have become aware of this risk and look for these patterns in their technical due diligence reporting to ensure that appropriate Capex costs are factored into the purchase price to account for a vendor’s R&M expenditure shortfalls.
Condition assessments, maintenance reviews, energy assessments and risk weighted strategic Capex forecasts have become 2010’s essential tools for good asset and facility management and sustainable property solutions. Continue reading
So where will all of this leave us in 2009 and beyond?
We are now in a Catch 22 market, which will make for an interesting year all round in property and development in Australia.
Property
There is an inordinate amount of property on the market nationally, from residential housing and apartment’s right through to large retail and commercial properties and any number of development opportunities across all sectors of the market.
The problem is credit and debt funding. Australian banks no longer have the cash funds and backing they previously had from the larger offshore investors which makes it much more difficult for them to lend causing them to adjust their lending criteria.
We are aware of a recent example where a blue chip client, with AAA rated companies and virtually no debt, was unable to secure debt finance from their banker of more than ten years to develop a commercial office building in which they would have taken more than 50% of the available space. In another development funding application of only $20m, it was suggested that the $20m be syndicated across four lenders at $5m each – unheard of in recent years.
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