* Mitsubishi sees annual profits fall by a fifth
* Westfield rues British, U.S. consumer spending slowdown
* Hammerson sees drop in tenant demand in UK and France
(Recasts, adds details on Mitsubishi Estates and Westfield)
By Sinead Cruise
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Three of the world's biggest property players said on Thursday that conditions were worsening in some of their key markets, killing hopes that the global property slump might be nearing an end.
Japanese investor Mitsubishi Estate Co blamed a faltering domestic economy for the 22 percent fall in its full-year profit and said the Japanese market remained tough as banks shied away from the indebted sector.
The annual profit fall, the company's first in seven years, reflected weakness in the firm's residential property sales business, senior executive Yutaka Yanagisawa said.
Westfield Group, the world's largest shopping centre owner by market value, reported challenging letting market conditions in the United States, where investors are still reeling from the demise of General Growth Properties, the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Westfield's co-managing director, Steven Lowy, said consumer sentiment in the United States and Britain remained weak but it was confident it could meet forecasts as rental income growth in Australia offset cooler occupier markets abroad.
London-listed Anglo-French property company Hammerson admitted it saw further weakness in real estate values in the first quarter of 2009 in a sober trading statement that also highlighted challenges facing its cash-strapped tenants.
The retail property specialist, which owns about 6.5 billion pounds ($9.60 billion) of real estate assets, said that the total income from struggling tenants had risen to 9.3 million pounds, or about 2.6 percent of its total rental income, and that it was seeing a drop in tenant demand in the United Kingdom and France.
Its overall occupancy rate fell to 92 percent from 95 percent at Dec. 31.
Hammerson shares dropped 1.5 percent to trade at 311.5 pence by 0858 GMT. Westfield and Mitsubishi Estate Co closed up 1.23 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, as investors drew comfort from the absence of any shocks in both sets of results.
All three companies claimed they had seen hints of recovery in their respective markets but that economic uncertainty and the stubborn shortage of debt has made it impossible to predict the length of the global real estate slump.
The Global Real Estate Health Monitor, a barometer of global commercial property market activity compiled by broker Jones Lang LaSalle, showed that most market indicators have continued to slide in the face of capital markets malaise.
"Although the broader credit markets appear to be improving ... there are few signs that lending to the real estate sector is improving," the report said. (See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters) (Editing by Karen Foster)