Green Property has sounded a note of caution about the short-term future for the group, with chairman Mr Ray MacSharry stating: "We expect the markets will continue to experience less exuberance than has been the case in the past few years."

Green's net asset value (NAV) grew 6.8 per cent to #11.28 a share in the first half of the year, compared to the group's average NAV growth of 35 per cent over the last five years. With the property markets slowing down, brokers do not expect anything like that level of growth to be achieved in the next few years.

Green's pre-tax half-year profits were down marginally at #37.2 million, but when the impact of joint ventures is excluded, underlying profits rose 69 per cent to almost #29 million from #17.2 million.