Ingenia Communities announced it has seen its first residents move into two new land lease communities: Natura (pictured) at Bobs Farm in Port Stephens, 191km north-northeast of Sydney, and Millers Glen at Beaudesert, 70km south of Brisbane.

It also revealed its sales of 374 land lease homes was consistent with its announcement on 30 June, which is near the bottom of the original target of 370-420 sales in the full financial year. The average home sale price across Ingenia-owned assets exceeded $487,000.

“Ingenia now has 14 projects in market, with 288 deposits and contracts on hand to support settlements growth in FY24. Construction timeframes are continuing to slowly improve, providing greater capacity to align settlements and home completions,” Chairman Jim Hazel said in a statement to the ASX.

On 30 June, Ingenia Communities said 18 communities were being built.

“Residential market conditions remain challenging with soft consumer sentiment, high inflation and interest rates continuing to slow buyer decisions and extend the sales journey.”

It also revealed valuations of 62% of its portfolio in the six months to 30 June, showed capitalisation rates have softened across its core Lifestyle, Rental and Holiday communities, with an average capitalisation rate expansion of 15 basis points for the lifestyle and rental communities and 26 basis points for tourism assets based on the independent valuations undertaken.

Ingenia Communities also announced the $36.5 million sale of Ingenia Lifestyle Lake Munmorah, about 110km north of Sydney.

Its share price has fallen just over 2% in the past 12 months and was trading at $4.02 at 11am today.