Good morning and thank you all for attending. I'm pleased to be presenting my second full-year result as CEO of Ingenia Communities , announcing that we have not only exceeded our EPS guidance, but that our year-one goals have been achieved, and we are now well placed to accelerate into delivery of our three and five-year plan. I'd like to start by introducing some of our executive team who are joining me to present and also to answer questions. Justin Mitchell, our CFO; Donna Byrne, General Manager of Investor Relations and Sustainability; Justin Blumfield, EGM Residential Communities; Matt Young, EGM Tourism; and Michael Rabey, EGM Acquisitions and Development.
Before I commence, I'd like to address the recent VCAT finding and current litigation relating to deferred management fees in Victoria. Ingenia does not include DMF in its lifestyle development operating model, as we believe increased competition in the sector and buyer sentiment has rendered it obsolete. Discerning customers have driven product evolution and pricing closer to surrounding medians, making the value proposition of DMF questionable for new product and resales alike. While our acquired federation portfolio contained a legacy DMF, it was not material for Ingenia , and we have prudently made provision for its impact. I'll start on slide 4. The implementation and systematic execution of our strategy supported delivery of significant growth as we exceeded our upgraded EPS guidance.
EBIT is at the top end of our guidance range after taking a conservative position and adjusting our revenue to exclude DMF received during the year. EBIT prior to this adjustment also exceeded guidance. The announcement of our strategic plan at last year's result saw us enter the year with a clear set of objectives, and I'm pleased to say that we have delivered on each and every one. Our ability to build momentum over the year while embedding change is not only reflected in today's outcomes, but will see us accelerate towards our three and five-year goals. This result demonstrates the tangible benefits of our focused execution, with improvements in our development margins and home settlement volumes combined with sustained cost savings, contributing to meaningful growth and improving development returns.
The momentum we have built sees us begin FY 2026 with a sustainable flow of new land lease home settlements, continued high occupancy across residential communities, and a 14% increase in forward bookings for our holiday parks. Before we talk about the result in more detail, let me quickly recap the areas of focus we identified last year as part of our one, three, and five-year plan. Turning now to slide 5. I'm extremely pleased with the delivery of our year-one goals. Simplifying our business, refining our focus, combined with clear strategic goals, has resulted in a range of changes, including winding up the fund's business with the sale of assets completed in February, streamlining our structure, and driving organizational change to deliver clear accountability and productivity gains. Significant board renewal and changes to our governance structure to support a simplified business and refined strategic direction.
We identified development as a key driver of accelerated growth and improved returns, and where considerable change has occurred, including implementation of a new structure and continued refinement. We are already seeing the benefits of some of these changes, which include a vertically integrated delivery model with the core activities acquisitions, marketing, and sales now within the development function. FY 2025 settlements were up 13% at the midpoint of our targeted five-year compound annual growth rate of 10%- 15%. Pleasingly, we've been able to grow our development gross margin as cost-based initiatives begin to impact, and we expect to achieve a net cash positive outcome per lot in FY 2026. We have already achieved these objectives in our joint venture portfolio, where our four greenfield projects delivered an average positive cash flow of AUD 70,000 per settlement with a net margin of 18.1%.
Following a review of our pipeline and establishment of greater financial discipline, we have chosen to divest or defer some projects and are acquiring in line with clear targets as we reshape the pipeline to meet our targeted returns and growth needs. As we transition out of brownfield and lower margin projects, we remain disciplined and continue to prioritize performance over volume. We continue to refine our portfolios, divesting lower growth assets and selectively acquiring assets which have opportunity for growth. We are actively engaged in discussions aimed at supporting future land lease growth and continue to acquire land to meet our objectives for growth in an increasingly competitive market. Moving briefly to slide 6, our FY 2025 achievements position us to deliver our strategic and scale targets in line with our three and five-year goals.
As we move to optimize returns, we have a solid foundation underpinning our drive towards our target portfolio structure and returns. Across the business, we have embedded more effective financial discipline and are seeing gains in productivity and accountability. A reduced executive headcount and changes in the development and Holidays business are delivering efficiency and productivity, along with sustainable reductions in our cost base. Development represents 39% of portfolio EBIT, and we are continuing to deploy the majority of our capital in this segment, supporting ongoing EBIT growth, pipeline acceleration, and scale in line with a five-year settlements CAGR of 10%- 15%. We retain a solid balance sheet with funding capacity. We have a fully engaged team committed to execution, as demonstrated by recent improvements in our engagement score. We are already well progressed with the actions that will underpin delivery of our year three and five objectives.
As we move into year three, we expect gains from our initiatives to accelerate, in particular through the realization of design refinements and procurement in development and a continued focus on productivity and efficiency. We are refining our portfolios, and with the clear targets in place, we have further acquisitions under review. Delivery of scale and optimizing returns across the business will continue the pathway to our medium-term targets and strategic goals. Over to Justin to present our financial results.
Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. I want to start my presentation by highlighting the progress made in delivering our key financial objectives. Our settlement volumes increased 13% to 520. Gross margin from development expanded to 47%, and there is meaningful progress in improving our net cash contribution from development projects. The group remains focused on driving enhanced financial returns and a prudent balance sheet position to fund our growth. I'll now start on slide 9. I'm pleased to present the group's financial results for 30th of June 2025, a year marked by strong performance, disciplined execution, and strategic momentum. Our group EBIT rose 22% to AUD 164.1 million, supported by margin expansion, a meaningful increase from the development joint venture, and a continued focus on cost management. Underlying profit was AUD 126 million and EPS AUD 0.309, an increase of 33% and exceeding our upgraded guidance.
Revenue increased 8% for the financial year, with growth achieved across key segments. We've taken a prudent approach to DMF following the VCAT decision, with no DMF recognized in FY 2025. In addition, a provision for AUD 12.5 million has been recognized in our statutory results for potential refunds, and we wrote down the fair value of investment properties by AUD 25 million, representing the full value of DMF. The total distribution for FY 2025 was AUD 0.096, consistent with our policy to pay out taxable earnings from the trust. The decline relative to last year is due to the inclusion of capital gains associated with the Ingenia Gardens assets that were disposed of in FY 2024. Now turning to slide 10. As I mentioned, our group EBIT was up 22%, inclusive of joint venture operating profits, landing at the top end of our guidance range.
Whilst we have seen improvement in overall returns in line with our five-year targets, there continues to be cost headwinds with growth above CPI, and in particular, council rates, utilities, and land tax. Lifestyle rentals have delivered growth, driven by CPI linked rent reviews and new annuity income from settled homes during the period. While maintaining its EBIT growth trajectory, margins have been impacted by lower CPI and legislative changes reducing rental growth relative to prior years. There was no DMF income realized and operating cost growth above CPI, coupled with new communities expanding. Lifestyle development delivered higher settlements, average home prices, and gross margin expansion, contributing to an EBIT uplift of 25% and a pleasing expansion of EBIT margin of 31.8%. Our development joint venture delivered at a 124% increase in underlying profit, with settlement volumes increasing to 146 for the year, driving growth.
Holidays also performed strongly, with tourism income rising 6%. Holidays has benefited from both higher occupancy and rate growth, supported by strategic investment in new cabins, enhancing earnings and unlocking portfolio value. While segment EBIT did increase marginally, margins declined slightly due to one-off costs and a targeted investment in marketing spend. Corporate and support center costs have declined, reflecting realized savings from restructuring and continued focus on cost management. I'll now turn to page or slide 11. We continue to manage capital with discipline and have maintained a prudent balance sheet position. We are actively managing risks as we grow the business, with a focus on capital availability and tenure. At 30 June, our gearing was 29.7% and LVR was 35%, comfortably within our target range and banking covenants.
We have over AUD 185 million in funding headroom, supported by stable recurring cash flows from both lifestyle rentals and holidays, and can recycle capital with targeted asset disposal as required. The group continues to be well supported by its lenders. In April, we secured AUD 125 million in new facilities and welcomed a new lender. We also refinanced AUD 350 million of existing facilities, extending our weighted average debt maturity to 3.7 years with no expiry before January 2027. Our weighted average cost of debt for the year was 5.24%, and we expect this to reduce into FY 2026 as our hedging profile positions the group to benefit from further interest rate reductions. Turning to slide 12. The group recognized a net valuation uplift across the portfolio. Lifestyle rentals total portfolio increased by AUD 160 million, driven by continued CapEx spend on development projects and our two acquisitions in Queensland.
However, the net valuation decline was realized due to the write-off of the DMF. The holidays and mixed-use portfolio grew by AUD 72 million, including AUD 38 million in valuation increases, reflecting strong underlying NOI growth and performance, investment in new cabins, and positive rent reviews with a relatively stable cap rate. Finally, the Ingenia Gardens portfolio grew to AUD 140 million, maintaining a stable cap rate. In closing, our business remains resilient and well positioned, underwritten by a stable and recurring income coupled with strong momentum. We have made good progress on executing our targets, delivering strong results, and maintained a disciplined capital position as we invest for growth aligned with our strategic objectives. The team remains focused on driving enhanced return and further embedding financial discipline. I'll now hand over to Michael Rabey to take us through the development results.
Thank you, Justin, and good morning. We'll start on slide 17. As mentioned, we are pleased with our development results, which reflect our ongoing focus on execution and the emerging impact of enhancements to our delivery model. Our EBIT grew materially, contributing 39% of portfolio EBIT, and we've also pleasingly seen an increase in our gross margins. Home settlements were up 13%, consistent with our five-year targets for growth. FY 2026 sees us move into positive cash creation as our project mix evolves and benefits of the design, cost, construction, and procurement initiatives progressively improve returns. We traded out of three of our brownfield projects in FY2025 and are already seeing the benefits from our refined structure and greater financial discipline as future projects commence and we drive towards greater scale and efficiency.
We are investing heavily in our pipeline, with further investment this year as we commence another five communities and launch a total of seven projects to market. We're now on slide 18. Reflecting first settlements in Q2 for Archer's Run, the joint venture increased its contribution, settling 146 new homes for the financial year at an average price of AUD 829,000. This is above the Ingenia portfolio average due to the majority of these projects being in New South Wales. This year, Archer's Run will contribute a full year of settlements, further increasing the joint venture's contribution to fees and returns for FY 2026. Moving to slide 19, we have stable build times with 16 projects currently underway, and we are continuing to align our delivery with demand. We completed 511 homes over FY 2025 and closed the year with limited inventory.
Across the Ingenia-owned projects, there were only 30 completed homes unsold at financial year end, with 17 in the joint venture. As at 21 August, we have settled 63 homes and have a further 398 contracts on hand. The anticipated rates of allocations to buyers provide a relatively smooth settlements profile, supported by delivery of project amenity, release of new product, and new communities completing first homes. We're now on slide 20. Settlements continue across a diverse range of locations, product types, and price points, with homes selling across 13 projects this financial year. While we operate in a number of submarkets, a large portion of our pipeline is in Queensland, a market which continues to deliver with strong sales, settlement rates, and price growth.
New South Wales continues to deliver higher than average pricing relative to other markets, with a slight decrease in days on market in the areas we operate. We have limited exposure to the slower Victorian market, which is tracking in line with forecasts, with inquiry remaining favorable and sales volumes increasing in the areas we operate. We're now on slide 21. We settled our last homes at three brownfield projects, now delivering stable rental returns. Facilities delivery continues across new and existing projects, with 11 communities opening display homes and amenity over the year. We are commencing five greenfield projects this year, building our pipeline of settlements across Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. We will see an uptick in marketing expense over the year as we launch seven new projects, impacting short-term EBIT margins before delivering first settlements from the end of FY 2026 and more significantly into subsequent years.
These new projects will provide opportunity to implement many of the improvements we've been working on over the past 12 months, aimed at productivity, quality, and efficiency gains. We acquired two projects in Queensland over the financial year, extending our pipeline of development sites, along with approval for 1,055 homes, and we are actively reviewing a range of further opportunities to extend this growth. We will continue work on initiatives to improve returns and our customer experience over FY2026, as we move from a focus on our team and structure to delivering further enhancements through technology, systems, and standards. I'll now hand over to Justin Blumfield to take us through residential communities.
Thank you, Michael, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'm pleased to be presenting the results for our established residential communities. These outcomes demonstrate the security of our rental annuities and our team's focus on delivering high levels of customer satisfaction as we continue to grow the number of sites in our lifestyle and rental portfolios. I'll start on slide 22 with the summary of the Ingenia Lifestyle rental segment, which achieved 2% EBIT growth for the year. This growth was driven by an uplift in revenue arising from rental increases from existing sites and the addition of 369 new rent-producing sites. The removal of DMF income in FY2025 impacted overall EBIT growth, while our stabilized EBIT margin was impacted by lower comparative rental growth from a declining CPI and the commencement of the Queensland Government's rental cap. Operational costs higher than CPI were also experienced throughout the year.
Turning now to our land lease communities on slide 23, our land lease rental annuity income continued its growth with new homes added via development. This included final settlements at our Chambers Pines, Coomera, and Toowoomba communities. Average weekly rental growth of 5.2% was achieved, and we supported this rental growth by completing 233 resales within our existing communities, generating AUD 3.5 million in sales commissions. Future rent growth will be impacted by various government legislation changes, including in Queensland, where rents are currently capped at the higher of CPI or 3.5%, in New South Wales, where changes have resulted in our adoption of fixed 4% annual increases, and lastly, potential changes as a result of the Victorian Government's current review. Our new Ingenia Lifestyle app has been extended to all Ingenia Lifestyle communities, with over 5,000 residents now connected to this platform.
Our focus on customer obsession has been further entrenched by the rollout of our new HOME customer framework. We refer to these as our HOME principles, and they reflect our team's commitment to delivering health and wellbeing, opportunities for discovery, meaningful connections, and easy living outcomes for our residents. These principles will guide the ongoing execution of our residents' community experience. Moving now to our All-Age Rental Portfolio on slide 24, we achieved strong rental growth across this portfolio and will continue to maximize revenue by upgrading accommodation and the addition of new homes where available. Occupancy remains strong at 98% thanks to continued high demand for rental accommodation in our key markets in Brisbane and Melbourne. Consistent with our strategy, we are targeting over 14% yield on future investment in new homes across these communities. Lastly, I'll turn to our Ingenia Gardens communities on slide 25.
The divestment of six Western Australian communities in December 2023 impacted revenue and EBIT for this portfolio. However, on a like-for-like basis, the existing 19 communities continue to perform, with an increase in average weekly rent, high occupancy, and careful control of costs, resulting in a stable operating margin. Our commitment to delivering exceptional support and service to our residents is demonstrated by an average 85% satisfaction rate across our Gardens communities. In closing, we are very pleased to have demonstrated discipline in our operational execution and have advanced our customer focus of building belonging at all our residential communities. Thank you, and I'll now pass to Matt Young, our Executive General Manager of Tourism.
Thanks, Justin. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share with you an update on our full-year results. I'll start on slide 28. As Justin mentioned, the portfolio continued its track record of growth in tourism revenue and EBIT. While EBIT increased, EBIT margin declined largely as a result of one-off costs and increased marketing expenditure, which included the development of a new website. We continue to deliver modest growth in occupancy and rate, demonstrating the resilience of this portfolio and a great result in light of disruptions due to extreme weather earlier this year. We expect this margin to improve in FY 2026, driven by a reduction in one-off costs experienced in FY 2025. Ongoing focus on enhancing performance through the new website is expected to reduce travel agent commissions, while a responsive use of forecasting and rostering tools will further support operational efficiency.
We've refined the portfolio and simplified the business, completing the sale of the sub-scale fund assets, and we've been selective in investing for growth by the addition of new accommodation and strategic acquisitions. I'll now move to slide 29. Over FY 2025, in addition to investing in densification opportunities, we've identified and acquired two established parks, which fill a strategic gap in our network and provide significant growth opportunities. We have additional accommodation planned for both sites, with both already benefiting from integration into our marketing and revenue management system. Both sites will deliver attractive returns on investment in line with our targets and leverage our existing platform and distribution capability. We continue to target densification opportunities where market intelligence indicates capacity constraints and drive long-term value creation. I'll now close on slide 30.
We added an additional 50 cabins across the portfolio in FY 2025, investing AUD 5 million and forecasting to exceed a yield of over 25%. Over the year, revenue generated by these new cabins, including booked and future revenue, has exceeded AUD 2 million, with a forecast operating margin of 60%. The launch of the new website is exceeding expectations over the first three months of operation, with an increase in booking desktop conversions up 26% and an impressive 36% increase in mobile conversions. In addition to reducing demand on our team for phone bookings, this has improved the overall customer experience. The rollout of the AI pricing tool continues, supported by proactive marketing campaigns to boost bookings in shoulder periods. In closing, I'm excited about the opportunities ahead, particularly with bookings up 14%, and I look forward to sharing further progress at our half-yearly results. Thank you. On our hand, back to John.
Thank you, Matt. I'm on slide 32. As you can see, our three areas of priority from a strategy perspective are guiding our actions throughout the business as we focus on optimizing financial returns and accelerating growth. I've spoken before to our strategic focus areas, and they have not changed. We have simplified the business with a structure and embedded focus that is fit for purpose. Over the next year, we will continue to refine our structure, seek further efficiency, and build our focus on customer. Secondly, we are beginning to see improved development returns in line with target. However, there are further gains to be realized. Our development team structure supports delivery at scale as we extend our pipeline and productivity goals. Finally, aligned to these objectives is maintaining our focus on operational efficiency and productivity, an ongoing focus on the returns we need from our portfolios.
Continued cost management and continual improvement in how we do what we do are key to value creation and improved returns from the business. These priorities have placed us in a strong position to deliver our financial and strategic goals and will continue to guide our actions into FY 2026. I'll close on slide 33. Our focus on execution is yielding results. We upgraded our guidance in FY 2025 and have met those targets with a delivery of EPS growth of 33% and EBIT growth of 22%. Importantly, we have made solid progress on our strategic goals and have embedded changes that will provide longer-term benefits, moving the business from aggregator to creator and operator with a clear pathway towards enhanced returns. A refined structure, stable corporate cost base, and entrenched financial discipline support our FY 2026 guidance as we target growth in underlying EPS and EBIT.
We continue to grow our annuity and recurring revenue base via our established residential communities and holiday parks. Recent acquisitions, investment in densification, and development activity will deliver growth in this diverse income stream over FY 2026. For development, FY 2026 is a key year as many of the design and procurement initiatives move into production, with five projects commencing over the next 12 months and additional land under review, we are building momentum towards our year three goals. We are fortunate to have strong demographic drivers that support our growth. A growing and aging population, underlying housing demand, and the appeal of domestic travel all support demand. We are acquiring with discipline, mindful of longer-term financial impacts and shareholder value. However, we are operating in an emerging sector and remain cognizant of the impact of the broader housing market on our customers' ability to sell.
The land lease industry is continuing to grow. It is institutionalizing as an asset class and being viewed as a viable alternative or preference to traditional retirement villages for a growing number of retirees. Aligned with this, we are seeing increasing competition and greater regulatory focus, which will continue to shape the future of this industry. For Ingenia, continuing to support positive industry change and managing the impacts on our residents and returns is a priority. It has been a busy 12 months, and I'm immensely proud of the outcomes we're sharing today. With our year-one strategic goals achieved and strong financial returns delivered, we retain conviction in our strategy and our ability to deliver improved returns. FY 2025 has been a year of transition and significant internal change for Ingenia.
Despite increasing competition, external headwinds in some markets, and growing regulatory oversight, we have embedded an aggressive change program while delivering solid growth and improved margins. We move into FY 2026 with a more efficient and sustainable operating model, a stable cost base, greater development focus, and diversity of cash flows to support improved returns. We have a clear pathway, committed team, sufficient capital to fund growth, and a simplified business that will continue to drive efficiency and productivity. Over FY 2026, you will see us build on the momentum established in FY 2025, increasing development activity and improving returns, continued portfolio refinement and selective investment, disciplined acquisition activity, and a solid capital base to fund growth. That concludes the formal presentation today, but before I go to questions, I'd like to thank the Ingenia team for their support and commitment to this year and their openness to change.
I'm pleased with the position the business is in and look forward to updating you on further progress. I'll now open the call to questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press *1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press *2. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset to ask your question. The first question comes from the line of Lou Pirenc with Jarden. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Good morning, John and Justin, or good afternoon. A few questions from me. Can I start with a boring one? Tax clearly was a big swing factor in 2025, well flagged. Your guidance for 2026, what does that assume, or what should we bear in mind there from a tax point of view?
Hi Lou, Justin here. Yes, you're right and I agree it was flagged. I think for guidance for the purposes of FY 2026, I'd be somewhere in the range of 5% - 8%, is where we're thinking and probably towards the top end of that.
Thank you. On tourism, you kind of mentioned some one-offs in 2025. Should we expect margins to get back to the 2024 levels or even higher in 2026, or will some of these one-off items continue for a bit longer?
I'm sorry, I was just going to say the one-off items relate to some sewer issues on a couple of projects and obviously a significantly heavier investment in the new website. We don't expect those to continue, so we expect margins to improve. The only things we're toying around with, the minimal impact is, you know, where we might do short-term stays where we still have the cleaning costs. It'll bring overall margins down at a park level, but it'll increase EBIT margin if we get extra bookings. We're really toying around with minor bits.
Great. Finally, John, you mentioned in your opening remarks in your strategic piece about having or assessing a number of acquisitions. Are you talking about land acquisitions or are you looking at broader, bigger platform acquisitions as well?
Very much so land acquisitions. Obviously, we want to continue to build our development pipeline as our path to growth. Most of those are greenfield opportunities, but there's the occasional brownfield, although from our experience, significantly developed brownfield tend to come at lower margins. Whilst we'll still keep an eye out for those, predominantly we're looking for rural development land.
Great, thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Ben Brayshaw with Barrenjoey . Please go ahead.
Good morning. Apologies. Good afternoon. John, you mentioned that the DMF is in effect obsolete, if I heard your comments correctly on the call, but you're also flagging a revised DMF may be included in the future federation resales. Could you just explain what you have in mind for that, please?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Ben. Look, we've been saying for some time we think the market has rendered the DMF obsolete. Most of the product in the markets we're operating are getting closer to median price points for those areas, somewhere around the 80% to median price, and it makes it difficult for customers to justify DMF, especially when there's, you know, good quality competitive product without it. In our DMF portfolio, sorry, the DMF in our federation portfolio, when you look at those, it tends to trade at a significant discount to the surrounding markets, whether that's Glenroy, Sunshine, or Werribee. The discounts associated with that make that product available to, you know, I suppose, low-income households from the surrounding area. As an example, in Glenroy, the median price point's about AUD 1 million, and we sell our product in the AUD 300,000s.
There, we think it's justifiable to retain a DMF to retain access for future residents into that product. Obviously, we've transitioned to a compliant DMF. We'll continue to monitor, but at this stage, we think it makes sense really about making the product available to low-income households.
John, in the presentation, I think it was Michael that mentioned that marketing expenses would be up for development in FY 2026. Should we be expecting it to be just some downward pressure on the development EBIT margin?
Maybe Ben, if I take that question . Yes, you can expect that there will be some downward pressure. As Michael indicated, I think we're launching seven projects in FY 2026, and to give you some context, it's probably somewhere between AUD 3 million- AUD 4 million in incremental marketing costs.
Great. Okay, thanks for your time.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tom Bodor with UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, John. Just on the DMF point, does that mean in practice you will not be collecting the DMFs until the various VCAT challenges are resolved, or are you still open to collecting the existing DMFs?
Yeah, the way we understand the ruling of VCAT, that particular clause in the contract is now void and can't be enforced, but the contracts remain on foot. We're not collecting DMF. We don't like the idea of collecting it and putting it in a trust fund. We retain the right to collect it, although that's probably more of a technical right, but we're not collecting it. We expect that appeal, based on advice, to run for eight or nine months. If you take the last 12 months into account, we would have collected about AUD 2.7 million- AUD 3 million worth of DMF over that period. Think of us potentially forfeiting that or not collecting that over the next period while the appeal runs.
Okay, great, that's clear. If you think about the DMF, obviously, that was one of the impacting factors on the lifestyle rental margin. Even adjusting for that, the margin's in the low 50% range. Where do you see that margin trending over time in lifestyle rental on a normalised basis? How do you sort of see the cost headwinds you've talked about today evolving over the next year?
We're still sort of targeting, you know, NOI margins in the mid-60%. Obviously, as we accelerate development, while we have projects under development, that NOI margin is always under pressure because we haven't hit, you know, maximum efficiency. You know, from a headwinds point of view, we obviously have a regulatory environment that's changed in Queensland and New South Wales that limits growth opportunities in rent, although it's, you know, still growth. We have potential legislation coming in Victoria, or regulation that might also limit mechanisms for growth there. We've had some cost pressure mainly to do with utilities and council rates and taxes and what have you. Certainly, we'll be taking opportunities to make sure we run as efficiently and maintain that preferred NOI margin range.
Okay, great. That's clear. Just a very much a final one for me. On slide 40, you very helpfully lay out the revaluation for developments. In the period, I see it was almost AUD 100 million negative. Do you expect, as your development margin improves over time, that figure to go to zero, or will it sort of remain negative for the foreseeable future?
Yeah, Tom, I'm happy to take it off the line in more detail when we catch up. No, that number will always be negative because as you... The biggest driver of that negative number is the actual realisation of development profits. I think the number for FY 2025 was something in the vicinity of AUD 60 million being released, but we actually booked over AUD 100 million in gross margin. Really, it's just moving from fair value to being realised through the P&L.
Great, thanks.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Solomon Zhang with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Afternoon, John, Justin, and Team. Thanks for your time. First question for me was just on settlements. I know you're targeting or emphasizing more of your 10%- 15% settlement CAGR over five years, but I just wanted to confirm, are you sticking or discarding your legacy three-year settlements guidance through to 2026 of 1,600- 2,000 lots? It sort of implies if that is still in place that 2026 settlements will be around 620 or so at the low end.
Yeah, thanks for the question. It was inevitable. Look, you know, we came out with a five-year plan and projected a 10%- 15% compound annual growth rate in lot settlements over the five-year period, and we're definitely committed to that. We also said that there were projects within the portfolio where the margins were lower than what they needed to be and in some cases significantly lower, and we said we would dispose of those sites or some of those until we could unlock the value in those. Based on having done that over this year, we're still committed to that five-year plan with the 10%- 15% compound annual growth. I hope that answers your question. The three-year lot settlement targets were before the five-year plan and prior to the decision to dispose or defer those assets.
Makes sense. In your opening remarks, John, you did touch on the potential for capital partnerships. I just wanted to understand how advanced those discussions are and what capital sources and what assets. Maybe just on Sun Communities, do they have additional appetite to increase capital deployed into the joint venture?
Good question. I think there's certainly a huge appetite for capital into this sector. We've been focused on creating opportunities that would develop a need for capital, and at this stage, based on our organic growth plan, it's unlikely we're going to need it. We're scouring the market for opportunities, whether that's portfolio or partnerships, in order to identify further development opportunities. If that necessitated bringing in a capital partner, we would. We have retained, obviously, ongoing dialogue with some communities over those opportunities. They've not indicated an ongoing participation appetite in the past, although if you follow them, you would have noticed they had a significant sale last year of their marinas business, and that raised a significant amount of capital and puts them in a good position to be able to participate. We wouldn't rely on that.
There are plenty of other sources should we find a partnering opportunity to bring more development opportunities in the organization.
Thank you. That's great.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of James Druce with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, good morning, John and team. I'm just touching on Solomon's question. Can you provide a bit more color as to what kind of volume should be doing for 2026? Is it at the low end or the top end of that 10% - 15% range? How should we think about price?
James, great question. I think it's a bit early to go there. We're committed to the target, but as you can imagine, we've got seven new projects launching, five of those going into production or whatever. It's too early for us to say what the market take-up is going to be on that. We're certainly committed to that five-year CAGR. Sorry, was there another part of the question?
Maybe I'll take that one. James, just in here just on price growth. Look, obviously we have a number of years now of double-digit price growth as we've transitioned out of brownfield into greenfield, and we expect that price now probably to moderate. Certainly on the headstocks, so an I&A probably in the low single digits is what we're expecting.
Okay, just the distribution of those seven new projects, are they back-ended or fairly evenly distributed in terms of starts over the financial year?
There's only five of those expected to settle in FY 2026, and the balance will start in FY 2027. We've obviously got a forward date though so far as the marketing campaigns and releases, but we would expect them to be more balanced towards the second half.
Okay, just on the performance of Lifestyle, All-Age , and Tourism, can you provide just some simple like-for-like growth numbers for those divisions over FY 2025 to get a sense of how things are leading?
Yeah, look, I think tourism is up around 6% on like-for-like from last year. Our lifestyle rentals, obviously that's broken up into Gardens, Lifestyle, and All-Age Rentals , but we're sort of seeing about 4% growth in revenues on those. Pretty pleasing. Obviously, tourism will be pushing as hard as we can in the lifestyle, the gardens. We are restricted in growth for the forthcoming year. In our All-Age Rentals business, we're not necessarily restricted, but we've extracted significant growth over the last couple of years. It would be prudent not to assume that that would continue at the same rate, although we have some densification opportunities in that portfolio.
Yeah, okay, that's good. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thanks, James.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Suraj Nebhani with Citi. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of quick ones. Firstly, with respect to the outlook statement, John, I'm referring to the published documents. You've called out ongoing cost headwinds and regulatory concerns. Can you just provide a bit more clarity on that? Where exactly are you seeing these, and how do you expect them to go over the next 12 months or so?
All right, let me break that up across the segments. I think in tourism, it's probably more around cleaning costs and what have you, because once again, we're targeting shorter stays and that'll have an impact. In the lifestyle communities business, it's pretty well across the board in terms of cost-based increases. Obviously, cost growth is outstripping our CPI rental increases in that market. Also, we're seeing things like energy costs going up, rates and taxes, and those uncontrollable things. Insurances have gone up across all of our operating villages and the tourism business. It's those sorts of things. It's not necessarily an overhead increase per se. We're not increasing resources or anything like that. It's things we don't control where we're a price taker.
I understand. Would you say that you expect that kind of, at least the guidance expects that kind of cost growth to continue over the next 12 months, or do you expect these to moderate?
We factored in the expectations we have. We would think it would moderate over the year. There are some minor incidences of councils making a tax grab on rates, but outside of that, we would expect those things to moderate, although things like insurance are hard to predict.
Sure. Thank you. Just one more on the net deposits. You have produced a nice chart on slide 19 where you've shown deposits and contracts. Would you have the FY 2025 deposits number there by any chance, Justin?
Yeah, Suraj, thanks for your question. Look, it's around, we can certainly look at it for you. It was around a very similar number. I think it was about AUD 400 if you look back 12 months ago.
Generally, how have the sales rates tracked across the land lease business in recent months? I know there was a bit of a point of discussion at the half-year result.
Sorry, can you repeat the question, Suraj?
Just the sales rates on land lease, how are they tracking in recent months? Just keen to understand that.
Yeah, look, they're tracking okay. We had a slow July, but a big August. Some of that's about supply for us as we bring on marketing initiatives on new stages on board. It's definitely not linear, and it's normally not linear in any residential business. So far so good. Inquiries are picking up in all the markets we're in, and as we bring product online, we're getting good take-up. Once again, July was probably quieter than we expected, and August has been busier than we expected.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press *1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Carfi for closing remarks.
Thank you all for your attendance and interest. Justin, Donna, and I look forward to meeting with many of you in the coming weeks, and we'll be available for any additional questions. Thank you again for attending today. I'll now conclude and close the call.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.