The good health of the land lease sector is evident in today's announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by the owner and operator of Australia's third largest portfolio of land lease communities, the second largest portfolio of rental villages, and a significant tourism park business.
Ingenia Communities Group is now targeting EBIT of $162 million to $165 million for FY25, representing growth of 20-23% on FY24, up from the previous target of $148 million to $155 million (10-15% growth on FY24). The Group’s targeted underlying EPS has increased to 29.0 cents to 30.0 cents (from a prior target of 24.4 cents to 25.6 cents).
“Our focus has been executing the plan presented at our results last August, simplifying our operations, driving operational efficiency and improving returns in all parts of the business, but particularly from the Group’s development activity," CEO John Carfi said.
“As we enter the second half, we have secured an exit from the sub-scale managed funds business and have seen continuous improvement across key areas. Changes to the Group’s operating model aimed at improving productivity have delivered ongoing cost benefits with savings exceeding original expectations as the Group moves into the second half.
“The development business is gaining momentum and benefitting from a clear focus on improving returns and greater financial discipline with the margin on home sales maintained despite cost pressures, and new projects on track to contribute in the second half. A total of 258 homes were settled in the first half and the sales pipeline positions us to deliver a more consistent settlements profile, with a slight skew to the second half and increasing settlements from the Joint Venture (with Sun Communities). The Group’s residential communities and holiday parks are continuing to provide stable and growing returns, with high occupancy maintained across our communities and ongoing strength in forward bookings."
In February 2024, Ingenia Communities had a development pipeline of 5,935 land lease home sites and 15,700 income producing sites.
The announcement saw Ingenia Communities' share price increase 15% by 4pm.
Ingenia will release further details on its FY25 performance year to date and the full year outlook will be released with the Group’s 1H25 results on Tuesday, 25 February 2025.
