Geoff Lucas departs McGrath estate agency

Geoff Lucas has departed the McGrath agency which has seen a 30 percent increase in transaction volumes over the past year.

McGrath Limited advised that its chief executive officer, Geoff Lucas, had "chosen to resign" following the presentation of the FY2020 financial results.

It advised McGrath has secured to a financial 2020 net profit of $700,000, versus a net loss of $9.7 million in the prior year.

For the year revenue climbed 11 per cent to $91 million. No dividends were declared in financial 2020.

Chair Peter Lewis said the board had accepted Lucas’ resignation after "what has been a difficult two and a half years for the company.”

Edward Law has been appointed to the role after a 14-year career at ANZ, with his last position at the bank being Global Head of Institutional Property.

An expert in structured commercial real estate debt funding, Mr Law most recently has been an executive director of Newground Capital Partners and investment director of MaxCap Group.

It was February 2018 when the then fformer McGrath chief operating officer Geoff Lucas emerged to take the top job at real estate company.

He was previously at McGrath for a decade until just after the 2016 float after its former chief executive Cameron Judson left.

Lucas, who was overlooked for the chief executive role in 2016 in favour of Judson, then briefly joined artisan NSW bread maker and cafe group Sonoma as its chief operating officer.

The agency has no debt and $17.3 million cash.
It said it expects property prices to decline over coming months with government stimulus packages, mortgage deferrals, and record low interest rates cushioning the falls.

It also tipped continued softness in the rental market.

The group declined to provide specific financial guidance for financial 2021.

McGrath shares sit at 19 cents.

The agency reported the impacts of COVID became evident at the onset of the pandemic in mid-March where transaction volumes were lower for a six-week period due to restrictions around open houses and on-site auctions.
"However, since then we have seen a rebound in sales volumes as these restrictions were eased and eventually lifted," it advised.

"Notwithstanding the impact of COVID, we are pleased to advise that the extensive work we have undertaken over the past year has manifested in our financial results with the company showing a turnaround in excess of $10 million in our underlying operating results and also returning to net profitability.

"Whilst there had been some impact on listing volumes since the onset of COVID, home values have remained quite resilient through this time.

"In our Property Management (PM) business, we have seen some decline in rental values.

"The lower demand due to the weaker labour market has impacted rents."