CONSOLIDATION within the property valuation sector has continued with the announcement by CB Richard Ellis that it will acquire national property valuation firm Megaw & Hogg National Valuers.
CONSOLIDATION within the property valuation sector has continued with the announcement by CB Richard Ellis that it will acquire national property valuation firm Megaw & Hogg National Valuers.
The world’s largest commercial real estate services firm, CB Richard Ellis agreed to purchase Megaw from property analysts RP Data, doubling the size of its existing residential valuations team.
Along with CBRE, other property valuers that have achieved a national presence include Herron Todd White, Quantia Valuation Consultants, Propell National Valuers and LMW Hegney.
Megaw provides more than 110,000 residential valuations a year to mortgage providers and financial institutions, and operates in 13 locations nationally.
The team of 19 valuers in Megaw’s Western Australian office offer coverage to the Perth metropolitan area, including Mandurah to the south and extended coverage north of Perth servicing the Wheatbelt and northern coastal regions to Jurien Bay.
CBRE Australia & New Zealand president Tom Southern said the acquisition of Megaw was highly strategic.
“By acquiring Megaw & Hogg we will solidify our position as the largest wholly owned residential valuations practice in Australia and the national provider of choice in this area,” he said.
Mr Southern said the firm had already been growing its residential valuations business over the past six years, both organically and via a series of strategic acquisitions.
CBRE’s regional director of residential valuations, Tom Edwards, said the major lenders in Australia were showing a clear preference for valuation firms that could offer wider geographic coverage.
“We expect the rationalisation of bank panels to continue over the next few years, which will increase the requirement for true nationwide residential valuation firms that can offer a one-stop-shop service in Australia,” Mr Edwards said.
Last month, independent WA valuer Hegney Property Group launched a new property consultancy brand to be known as LMW Hegney, following a joint venture between east coast firm Landmark White (LMW Group) and Hegney Property Valuations.
LMW Hegney director Nathan King said the two property valuation firms were brought together in order to provide their clients with national representation and maximise the strength of their experience and market knowledge.
“There is a real demand from national clients, such as financial institutions, to have a single point of contact and they are looking for consistency from a national perspective,” he said.
Mr King said there is real pressure on independent valuers to ‘go national’ if they wanted to continue to be a major provider for financial institutions.
The amalgamation means that LMW Hegney will be represented through 16 offices and 215 staff nationwide and will provide integrated property services on a national scale.
National property valuer Herron Todd White expanded its business into WA in 2008 through mergers with Southern Independent Property Valuers, which has offices in Bunbury and Busselton, and Subiaco-based Sullivan Valuation Services.
Also that year, WA independent property valuers Christie Whyte Moore Valuations and smaller rival Valuation Partners merged to form Quantia Valuation Consultants.
Quantia Valuation Consultants is now one of WA’s largest valuation firms, with a total of 40 valuers across its four offices in Perth, Dunsborough, Bunbury and Mandurah.
Propell National Valuers, which has 19 offices around Australia, entered the WA market in July 2007 with the acquisition of Ray White Valuers, which has offices in Perth, Mandurah and Dunsborough.
