Good morning, and welcome to Lifestyle Communities Investor Analyst Conference Call. My name is Anita Addorisio, Company Secretary of Lifestyle Communities and moderator for this call. This webinar will be recorded for the benefit of those who are unable to attend today, and the webcast will be available upon request. Please be advised that our conference will strictly be limited to 45 minutes. Due to the number of attendees, we will endeavor to address as many questions as possible during this time.
We encourage you to contact the company via the investor center available on the company's website should you have any queries following today's update. Our presenters today are our Chief Executive Officer, Henry Ruiz, and Chief Financial Officer, Angela Farbridge-Currie, who will provide an update on the FY 2026 results as released to the market this morning. Also joining us this morning is Clare Lewis, Investor Relations.
This will be followed by a Q&A session for which I now outline the procedure as presented on your screen. Prior to asking your questions, we invite you to introduce yourself and advise the organization that you are representing. To ask a verbal question, please select the raise hand icon to be placed on queue. You will be invited to speak at the appropriate time.
If you wish to ask any written questions, please do so via the Q&A function. Please note that questions received via the Q&A function, which are of a similar nature, will be grouped and answered at the appropriate time. I now invite our CEO, Henry Ruiz, for his presentation. Over to you, Henry.
Thanks, Anita, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our FY 2026 full-year results. I am joined today by Angela Farbridge-Currie, our CFO, and Clare Lewis from Investor Relations. The story of FY 2026 is one of renewal and transformation for our business. Over the past year, we have rebuilt sales momentum, strengthened our financial position, reduced inventory, and materially improved the underlying foundations of the business.
We have taken deliberate action to improve operating discipline, restore confidence in the business, and position Lifestyle Communities for sustainable growth as the market conditions improve. At our core, Lifestyle Communities reimagines the Way to Live for independent downsizers. Our model combines affordable contemporary homes with vibrant community living, helping homeowners unlock equity and live active, independent, and connected lives. Delivering on our purpose is not only important for homeowners. It is also commercially significant.
Customer appeal, satisfaction, and advocacy help drive demand across our portfolio. As the homeowners choose Lifestyle Communities and enjoy positive living experiences, we strengthen our recurring income streams, improve business resilience, and create long-term value for shareholders. As we reflect on FY 2026, the business has emerged stronger, more focused, and better positioned to capture the opportunities ahead. This snapshot captures some of the highlights.
FY 2026 marked a significant step forward in rebuilding sales momentum with the team achieving 400 sales, including 216 net new home sales, up 55% on the prior year. We also welcomed over 410 new homeowners into our communities, helping more Australians embrace an active, connected, and affordable lifestyle. The portfolio now includes 4,368 homes under management across 25 operating communities, and we have just under 1,400 sites in our development portfolio.
Financially, the business generated AUD 94.9 million of operating cash flows and a statutory profit after tax of AUD 46.9 million. The team also made strong progress in reducing completed home inventory by 55%, which when combined with the finalization of land bank sales, enhanced our balance sheet strength and contributed to AUD 186 million reduction in net debt. Our investment properties were independently valued as at the June 30th, 2026, with the carrying value increasing to AUD 952.9 million. NTA increased to AUD 5.59 per share.
Although external conditions remained subdued, we made major strides in strengthening the underlying business platform, creating a more capable, scalable, and valuable foundation for future growth and shareholder returns. FY 2026 marked a decisive step in our transformation journey. As we strengthened the foundations of the business, we remained focused on restoring momentum, enhancing execution, and positioning Lifestyle Communities for long-term growth.
That momentum is most evident in our sales result. Net new home sales rose 55.4% to 216, supported by our market-led pricing strategy, improved conversion performance, and the growing strength of the Way to Live brand.
Equally important, as I touched on already, we reduced the level of unsold inventory by 55%, from 269 homes to 121, and aligned new build orders more closely to sales rates. That is an important sign of greater operating discipline. Thanks to our team's customer-centric approach, homeowner satisfaction reached 78.9%, the highest result since the measurement began. Handing to Angela to walk through our overall results snapshot.
Thank you, Henry, and good morning, everyone. There are a number of key messages in the FY 2026 result that I'd like to highlight. Firstly, as Henry mentioned, new home sales improved materially, increasing from 139 in FY 2025 to 216 this year. This improvement was driven by the Way to Live brand campaign, execution of our market-led pricing strategy, and a stronger sales conversion focus. Settlements were lower than the prior year, with 240 new home settlements, compared with 268 in FY 2025.
As previously flagged, this reflects the lag from sales to settlements due to lower sales rates over the previous 24 months. When we consider this against a softer residential housing market, which is experiencing lower transaction volumes and vendor price reductions, our sales to settlements conversions have pleasingly remained strong.
Our annuity rental income continued to grow, with rental income increasing 12.4%, driven by both the annual rental increase and the additional 240 new homes settled during the year. Consistent with our half year reporting, our total annuity revenue was reduced year on year due to DMF revenue not able to be collected on contracts impacted by the VCAT decision. Finally, operating profit after tax was AUD 25.4 million, down from AUD 45.2 million in FY 2025.
The operating earnings result is reflective of the lower new home settlement volumes and price points, the lower DMF revenue following VCAT, and consistent with our half year result, a greater portion of interest cost expensed against the Land Bank. Pleasingly, from a balance sheet perspective, our disciplined strategy execution has enabled us to reduce net debt materially from AUD 460.5 million in June 2025 to AUD 273.7 million at June 2026, which has assisted us with strengthening the balance sheet as we head into FY 2027.
Moving to our business strategy. Our strategy is anchored in a very simple idea, reimagining the Way to Live for independent downsizers. The business aims to provide affordable contemporary housing in beautiful community settings. The land lease model enables homeowners to downsize, unlock equity, and access resort style amenities and community living. We bring that strategy to life through four operating pillars. We call these Way to Live, Way to Grow, Way to Build and Way to Operate.
These pillars give us a practical framework for how we can improve the homeowner experience, strengthen demand generation, deliver communities with greater discipline, and the operations of the business, and doing that more efficiently. They also shape the rest of this presentation. Way to Live is about the strength of the homeowner experience.
We continue to invest in our communities, enhancing amenities, modernizing how we connect with homeowners, and lifting the consistency of the experience we deliver. The commercial importance of this is clear. A better experience supports referrals and advocacy and underpins a resilient rental annuity stream.
Our portfolio of homes under management grew in the current year by 5.8% to 4,368, up from just over 4,100 in FY 2025. Growing the number of occupied homes under management remains central to our strategy and the long-term value of the platform. Our annuity stream continues to underpin our platform with site rental fees indexed at the greater of CPI or 3.5% per annum. The rental increase applied for FY 2027 was 4.6% and became effective from the July 1st.
This slide shows the progress we are making in the homeowner experience. Overall, customer satisfaction has improved across each six-month cycle, increasing from 76.7% in March 2025 to 78.9% in March 2026. Importantly, we have evolved to a more scalable homeowner engagement model. With the homeowner survey now serving as our primary source of insight and helping shape our priorities, community action plans and decision-making. Put simply, happy homeowners equals more referrals.
Moving to Way to Grow, which is about improving both sides of the sales process. That means strengthening the inquiry to appointment journey and supporting homeowners through the process of selling their existing home. The opportunity ahead for Lifestyle Communities remains compelling. The powerful forces that have underpinned our business growth for more than 20 years are not only intact but accelerating, including population aging, our strong need for affordable housing options, and a large underpenetrated market.
Our value proposition remains simple. High quality community living, typically priced around 80% of the median house price in the relevant catchment, with flexible management fee choices and strong referral dynamics. It is widely recognized the Victorian property market has remained subdued, and it is with this context that our sales momentum is ever the more pleasing. As you can see, our new home sales performance improved materially in FY 2026.
The improvement reflects three key things. The effectiveness of our Way to Live brand campaign and positioning, the face-to-face appointment to sale conversion rate improving from a historical level of around 22% to now averaging circa 25%, and the impact of our market-led pricing strategy. This gives us confidence that our underlying sales process is working despite the subdued Victorian property market. Resales performance was also equally strong in FY 2026.
This is such an important aspect for our homeowners when it comes time for them to sell and equally brings the next turn of the management fee into play for our investors. We delivered 184 established home sales and 171 settlements, which was the strongest level of resales in recent periods, with 55% growth year-on-year. The Upfront Management Fee option has also expanded customer choice. Since its implementation, 28% of net sales have selected the upfront fee option, supporting flexibility and different customer affordability preferences.
This is an important evolution in our business model because it provides customers with greater choice while maintaining the management fee framework. FY 2026 provided clear evidence that we are building something far more powerful than a single sales initiative.
By strengthening our brand, increasing referrals, improving prospect qualification, enhancing our product appeal, and expanding customer choice, we are creating a repeatable demand engine capable of supporting sustainable growth over the long term. As we turn our mind to FY 2027, our focus is clear. It's execution. We will continue to build awareness of Lifestyle Communities through our Way to Live campaign and growing homeowner advocacy and referrals.
We are becoming more targeted in how we engage customers, focusing our efforts on motivated prospects and improving conversion rates. At the same time, we continue to refine our product and pricing and leverage our management fee choice. Supported by a 23% increase in brand awareness in FY 2026 and stronger homeowner satisfaction, we believe we are well positioned to capture future demand. Way to Build is about re-engineering the development process to drive margin expansion.
We are focused on market-led product and pricing, refined home designs, more efficient project sales models, and capital discipline. As we turn our focus to activating a new community in FY 2027, the team is focused on five key levers to enhance profitability and long-term returns. These include simplifying home specifications to reduce complexity and improve build efficiency, leveraging a competitive tender process to optimize construction costs, refining our clubhouse design and delivery to ensure amenities are aligned with homeowner needs while also maintaining capital discipline.
We are also exploring new opportunities to enhance the revenue side, enhancing rental yields across the portfolio. Last but not least, unlocking the benefit of lifestyle managers living offsite, which creates an additional home that can either be sold and generate annuity revenue.
Together, these initiatives are expected to support stronger community economics, improve returns on invested capital, and enhance the scalability of future developments. The goal is not growth at any cost. It is disciplined growth that enhances shareholder returns, preserves margins, and positions the business to perform through both favorable and challenging market conditions.
The group has a meaningful pipeline of communities still to be delivered, which we will remain focused on delivering in a disciplined manner, balancing growth and capital management. With a portfolio and pipeline of 5,750 homes and over 4,300 of these currently occupied, we remain well-positioned with a three to four-year land supply. In our developing communities, there are just over 640 sites remaining to settle, and in addition, we have a further 738 homes remaining to be developed from the land bank.
Following the settlement of the planned land sales in FY 2026, we retain a well-balanced portfolio that supports the next phase of development pipeline as existing projects complete. As we deliver the pipeline, we will continue to be market-led in our pricing strategy, which will impact development margins as we follow the cycle and work through the existing projects.
However, as we've previously noted, the ongoing demand drivers for the sector support future project delivery, with our ultimate goal of growing the number of homes under management. Turning now to inventory, as we've previously highlighted, inventory reduction was a key focus area in FY 2026, and progress has been significant on this front. Since June 2025, unsold inventory reduced by 55%, down from 269 homes to 121, with most communities now back within our optimal inventory ranges.
We achieved this through our targeted pricing strategies, focused selling towards completed homes, and matched build rates more closely to sales rates. As you can see from the table, both our Deanside and Woodlea communities remain the two communities with slightly elevated inventory, which we'll continue to manage during FY 2027.
This is a clear example of the more disciplined operating model we're embedding across the business with close collaboration between our sales, marketing, and project teams, ensuring that we will remain focused, responsive, and aligned to strategy.
Moving to Way to Operate, which is all about strengthening the operating platform. Think of it as our corporate functions. The business today is on a stronger footing from the changes the team implemented over the past 12- 15 months. We have fortified the balance sheet, aligned our organizational structure to our strategy, and right sized our workforce by circa 10% year on year. This process, coupled with operational cost reviews, including downsizing of the support office, is forecast to deliver around 7% cost reductions in FY 2027.
We've also been actively managing Lifestyle's response to the 2025 VCAT decision and implications. We've optimized and refined the deferred management fee model in light of the regulatory changes. We've also entered into an agreement to acquire the balance of the Chelsea Heights joint venture. In summary, we are improving business efficiency and creating a platform that can scale more effectively when market conditions improve.
The balance sheet is materially stronger than it was 12 months ago. As previously reported, in January this year, our debt facilities were restructured and reduced to AUD 375 million. The refinancing simplified the financing structure, right sized our facilities to the medium-term needs of the business, and provided ICR covenant relief until the June 30, 2028, reporting period. As we've also noted this morning, and as you can see on the graph in the top right-hand side, our net debt reduced from AUD 460.5 million at June 2025 to AUD 273.7 million at June 2026, a reduction of AUD 186.8 million.
The delivery of these initiatives gives the business greater flexibility, allowing time for recovery in the Victorian property market. Importantly, we've achieved this balance sheet strengthening while still maintaining a sufficient development pipeline.
This is an important slide because it speaks to our business model durability and customer choice. The July 2025 VCAT decision specified that a deferred management fee needs to have a fixed starting point, meaning that a deferred management fee based on purchase price is permissible. The model we introduced in July 2025 is consistent with that VCAT decision, and more recently, the new proposed Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill of 2026.
As per our ASX announcement on the 18th of August, the Court of Appeal will deliver its judgment on the group's appeal later this morning. Our current provisioning in the June 2026 financial statements reflects the ruling under the original VCAT decision. This is an important point to note. Should the decision be favorable, this is expected to result in a reversal of the provision.
Consistent with previous announcements, regardless of the outcome of the appeal, we committed to offering current homeowners the option to move to a deferred management fee based on purchase price instead of resale price. That said, we anticipate homeowner interest to take up that offer will be more likely if Lifestyle Communities is successful at appeal. We will update the market once the judgment has been delivered. Independent of the appeal process, for our new customer prospects only, we have also introduced choice.
They can pay an upfront management fee of 10% of the purchase price, or they can defer the management fee and pay up to 20% when they sell and leave the community. For shareholders, the key point is that we have not waited for an appeal outcome to drive the business, and that is reflected in our sales results. Giving customer choices around their management fee preserves affordability for incoming homeowners and allows homeowners to retain future capital growth.
Turning to the income statement, as we've noted, we've reported an underlying operating profit after tax of AUD 25.4 million. Our FY 2026 results were underpinned by the rental annuity stream, with our operating business delivering site rental income growth of 12.4% from the prior year. This growth was driven by more homes under management and the annual inflation linked rental increases. Community operating margins moderated slightly to 53.9% in FY 2026, reflecting lower margin contributions from developing communities as they achieve stabilized occupancy.
Improvement to operating margins is expected in FY 2027 as these communities continue to sell down and stabilize. In addition, in late FY 2026, we commenced a process to optimize community operating margins through operating efficiencies and portfolio scale benefits. Development margins at 10.4% are down from prior periods and reflect the impact of targeted price adjustments to meet the market.
With the average price per settled home, excluding GST, decreasing from AUD 608,000 in FY 2025 to AUD 589,000 in FY 2026. Lower development margins are expected to continue for a period of time as we work through the inventory position and recovery of the Victorian property market. Updated pricing assumptions for the remaining stages at the Woodlea project resulted in the recognition of a AUD 1.7 million inventory impairment provision at June 30, 2026, with the anticipated future loss recognized upfront in the current year result.
Finally, as I noted, operating profit after tax was AUD 25.4 million, which was lower than the prior periods due to lower new home settlements, reduced DMF revenue following the VCAT decision, and a higher proportion of interest cost expense relating to the land bank. While the amount of interest cost expense has increased, the total interest cost for the year was similar to FY 2025.
As Henry has touched on, this result reflects deliberate trade-off of development margin to support and drive sales momentum, clear inventory, and strengthen the business for improved through-the-cycle returns. The balance sheet has strengthened over the year. Net assets increased to AUD 680.8 million, or AUD 5.59 per share, driven by the full year result. The focus on selling through built stock during the year has resulted in a 55% reduction in the number of unsold homes in the system from the prior year.
In turn, a reduction in the carrying value of inventories on the balance sheet by AUD 96 million. With most communities now within optimal stock levels, Deanside and Woodlea remain the two communities where there is further working capital to be released.
The value of our investment properties increased to AUD 952.9 million, driven by fair value increases and partly offset by the disposal of the Ocean Grove 2 land parcel. All of our planned land sales completed during the first half of the year, which when combined with the working capital released from inventory, drove the reductions in borrowings for the year. The reduction in borrowings has improved the loan to value ratio to 28.7% at June 30, down from 47.8% at June 2025, and has brought gearing back within the group's risk appetite settings.
Turning to the investment property portfolio, the total portfolio increased to AUD 952.9 million at year-end. The growth was underpinned by two key drivers, contracted rent increases across the portfolio and the 240 new settlements during the year, which increased the number of income producing homes within our portfolio.
The established communities increased in value by AUD 25.4 million, which includes a AUD 7 million uplift from the valuation of non-VCAT impacted DMF contracts, which had previously been written down. Weighted average capitalization rates firmed slightly to 5.2% from 5.24% in the prior year. The value of our developing communities grew AUD 59.3 million as new homes were settled.
During FY 2026, we also refined our valuation methodology for developing communities by incorporating independent as is valuations of the rental DMF and undeveloped land components, which resulted in a AUD 7.6 million fair value uplift through statutory earnings. The carrying value of the land bank reduced following the sale of Ocean Grove 2 and a write-down of our inventory, Inverloch and Armstrong Creek sites relating to capitalized stamp duty and GST.
Overall, the portfolio value growth continues to be driven by fundamentals, being contracted revenue growth, ongoing settlements, and the increasing maturity of the portfolio. Turning to the operating cash flow, despite the lower level of settlements in the year, we generated positive operating cash flows of AUD 94.9 million, up from an outflow of AUD 7.1 million in FY 2025.
The improvement is a result of a reduction in the development expenditure, which reflects disciplined management of build rates and the completion of clubhouses and civil works at communities in progress which were ongoing in the prior year. The lower cash interest paid during the year reflects a timing difference, with interest payments on the PGIM debt facility payable six-monthly, each July and January.
You can also see in the bottom section of the cash flows, the proceeds received from land sales and the flow through from repayment of borrowings. Looking ahead, we anticipate positive operating cash flows for FY 2027 as projects continue their capital recovery phase.
The business enters FY 2027 from a position of greater strength. With clearer demand generation drivers, a healthier balance sheet that we believe accounts for an upheld appeal outcome, inventory levels now within optimal ranges across most communities, and greater customer choice through our management fee options. While the strengthening of our business fundamentals continues, the progress achieved in FY 2026 was both significant and tangible. We reinvigorated the sales engine and delivered a material improvement in sales momentum.
We strengthened homeowner trust and satisfaction, with customer satisfaction reaching record levels. We improved financial flexibility by refinancing our debt facilities and strengthening the balance sheet. We advanced planning for our next community launch, anticipated in the second half of FY 2027, while we continue to progress development across our existing pipeline.
While we have been encouraged by the 55% improvement in sales in FY 2026, lower sales rates experienced in prior periods are expected to temper settlement volumes in FY 2027 due to the normal lag between sales and settlements. Our focus in FY 2027 remains firmly on executing our transformation plan, maintaining disciplined supply and demand management, and building a more resilient business for the future. The need for high quality, affordable housing has never been greater.
With a clear strategy, a stronger operating platform, and an enduring purpose, Lifestyle Communities is well-positioned to help more Australians downsize with confidence and enjoy greater financial freedom, connection, and wellbeing, while delivering long-term value for shareholders. A big thank you to our homeowners, our partners, our shareholders, the team and the board for your continued trust, support, and belief in what we are building together. Thank you. Back to you, Anita.
Thank you, Henry. As a reminder, the conference call will conclude at 9:45 A.M. this morning. We now welcome your questions, and we will commence by addressing verbal questions before taking any written questions. I do note on the line we have Tom from Jarden. Tom, please proceed with your question.
Good morning. Thanks very much for your time. Just be interested, I understand you have provisioned for VCAT, but it would be good to understand what the impact to your gearing would be if the decision goes against you, because presumably that provision would start to be reflected through the debt increasing to repay customers. Is that the right way to think about that?
Hi, Tom. You are right in that we have fully provisioned for the VCAT outcome. Ultimately, in terms of the timing and quantum in terms of that outflow and what that looks like, it is really actually difficult for us to predict. We are quite comfortable that we have provided in full, but we ultimately need to assess the number of claims that come in, and that timing of that will obviously then impact the impact of the gearing ratio.
Do you have funding capacity, though, to deal with it in your estimation?
Yes.
Okay, great. The other one I was interested in is, obviously, you've given us very clear line of sight over what settlement, sorry, what's booked to settle in the year and what's settled so far in 2027. Just be interested in a reasonable range of outcomes for 2027 based on your current sales rates, maybe a bit of upside, downside sort of range. Where do you sort of think settlements could land realistically in 2027 based on the kind of sales rates you know today and what's already been pre-sold?
Look, I think probably the best place to go would be looking in the presentation around number of contracts we've got available for settlement as it stands today. I think looking forward, the property market is a little bit unpredictable, so it's hard to know exactly what the sales rates will look like into the further out quarters. We know we've got the right levers in place, and we've proven that over the last 12 months. Your best gauge is probably looking at the contracts that are available for settlement today and then making an assumption based on what you've seen from our sales track record so far.
R ealistically, how for the next, what, six months of sales could sell and settle within the period? Is that the right way to think about it? Or would you say right through to, say, March 2027 that you could sell and settle in the FY 2027 year?
I think that's broadly reasonable as an assumption. What we just note is that there are variances within the Victorian market just in terms of settlement rates. We have seen in the Victorian market right now that settlement timing is starting to extend a little bit. I think that that's a reasonable starting assumption, Tom.
Okay, thanks. Just a final one from me on the upfront fees. I remember your previous management team telling me that there was no demand from customers to offer an upfront fee, which I thought was interesting given you did not offer one, so it would be hard to know what the demand is. 28% seems like a good outcome. What are the conversations like with those customers selecting that option? What is their driver?
Yeah, look, we have been very pleasantly surprised. It tested well, and very transparently, we did not anticipate it would be as high as what we are seeing. Because we are giving people choice, and financially, we do not have a preference which way that goes, people are effectively saying they just, in some cases, do not want it to affect their pension. T hat is one of the reasons that people cite on why they go upfront. Another part is also effectively just wanting to take any sort of exit fee off the table for family.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you, Tom. Next, we have Solomon from UBS. Solomon, please proceed with your question. Solomon, just a reminder, if you are there, to take yourself off mute.
Unmute. Sorry. Thank you. Morning, Henry and team. Thanks for your time. Just on your margins, just wanted to understand 10.4% for the period, but Deanside and Woodlea being a bit more challenged. If you strip those projects out, would your margins be a bit higher? What' s the expectations for margins once you cycle out of those two projects?
Morning, Solomon. Yes, as we have noted in the presentation, we have provided for a future loss for Woodlea of around AUD 1.7 million, which is the bringing forward of a loss. Naturally, if that was to be excluded and the lower margin project, our margins would be improved if that was normalized. Ultimately, as we have said, the future margins are really reliant on the settlement mix that washes through. Ultimately, as lower project margins cycle off, we do expect to see some improvement to margins, but unlikely within the existing project portfolio.
Got you. Could you give us a sense of the spread between maybe your older projects and the expected margins on the newer ones that you are underwriting?
Yeah, we do not give a breakdown of margins by project.
Sure. Maybe just turning to the sales trajectory, there was a decent uptick in fourth quarter versus third quarter. It has moderated a touch in first quarter 2027. Just wanted to understand whether that's weaker inquiries or conversion rates and whether you're seeing any stabilization that gives you some confidence that conditions have somewhat found a floor.
Yeah, look, what I've observed over the last 12 months is that it doesn't run at a standard tempo throughout every week of each month. It effectively, there are highs and lows in terms of when people decide to ultimately put their deposit down. While we've got quite a few people on hold at the moment that typically might have closed a little bit quicker.
The main feedback that you get is, again, people's just confidence that they can sell at the right price for their existing home and in a reasonable timeframe. Demand is still coming through. People are just starting to just make sure that they've got high confidence and conviction that their existing property is going to sell in a reasonable timeframe.
Thanks, Henry.
Thank you, Solomon. Next on the line, we have Suraj from Citi. Suraj, please proceed with your question.
Hi there. Can you guys hear me?
Yes.
We can. Hi, Suraj.
Yeah. Hi. Morning, team. Thank you for the presentation. Just a couple of quick ones. Firstly, on the margin side, Angela, you gave us some good color, longer term or sort of at least the next few years, you expect margins to be weak, but or to be steady rather from where they are. What do you think needs, is it just price growth that we need to see? And then maybe just tying that into the new work that you've shown on the construction side as well, how are you thinking about construction cost growth?
Suraj, I might start and then throw to Angela. Just to clarify, the comment before about margin was really just about our existing portfolio as we sell through that. What we have indicated is that we are planning to start the next community. W e've outlined within the presentation; we think that there are a number of levers that both improve revenue and also impact costs and taking the learnings of the company over the last 20 years to optimize margin. That would be sort of comment one.
Two, we would like to see longer term margin improve through the cycle. That obviously will be impacted by the property cycle itself. I f it stays flat, it will be a bit more tempered, but we know the property cycle is cyclical, so we're anticipating that will give us a benefit. We've also outlined previously that we will follow the property market up as well. T hat will also improve margin. Might throw to Angela for the second part of your question.
Yeah. With regards to construction prices, we can talk to what we're seeing now. Yes, we have seen price rises like everyone else. We're obviously not immune. T hose cost increases have been limited to housing, given the state of our current portfolio. Yes, there have been some increases this year, but they have been broadly in line with our forecasts. We just continue to monitor and work very closely with our builder, Todd, and try and push back on those cost increases where we can.
Elaborating on that construction piece, the new work that you've shown today in the presentation, just keen to understand, is there scope for more builders to come into the pool or continue working with Todd ? What does that mean, I guess, across the existing portfolio, in terms of or is it more newer sites that you're talking about, when you highlight the new way of construction?
That's right, Suraj. We have highlighted in our pack there that as we look to commence the next project, we will be tendering our construction package and are looking to tender that. For the existing projects, we are contracted with Todd and really happy with the work that we're doing on those sites.
Just final one on, I guess, interest costs more broadly and maybe capitalized interest into next year. Any color you can give us there, Angela?
I think as we've previously said, as that land bank gets activated and those projects commence construction, we will be able to capitalize interest to those projects as they become activated.
In terms of levels or anything, or cost of debt, any more, I guess, color you can give us?
Not at this stage.
Thank you.
Thank you, Suraj. I am just mindful of time, but we will take one last question. We have Mitchell from Barrenjoey on the call. Mitchell, please proceed.
Yeah. Morning, Henry, Angela. Maybe just quickly, could you elaborate on some of the demand you are seeing for new builds versus, trying to understand if it is easier to be selling and settling the completed inventory and how you are thinking about going into FY 2027 as that inventory comes down.
Yeah, look, the company has a historic muscle of being able to sell through stock that is not on the ground. We have just found ourselves in a position where we had this overhang, and so we have taken a very disciplined approach to direct the sales team to make sure that we clear through that. We are now going to see ourselves start to go back to what the company used to be good at, which is taking orders and demand from customers around what they are really interested in.
The good thing is that the stock that we have on the ground is at the appropriate levels and is refreshed stock. I t is really, what customers can touch and feel in terms of what we are going to build next is the direction that we are taking.
Is there still an ICR, is there still a covenant for home settlements going into calendar 2027 as well? I just did not see that on the slide.
Yes. It's not a covenant; it's ultimately a review event. Ultimately for the 12-month rolling period ended December 31, that review threshold is 175 new home settlements.
Great. Thanks. That's all from me.
Thanks.
Thank you, Mitchell. Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of this Q&A session, which brings us to the conclusion of this conference call. Thank you for joining us today. If we were unable to address your questions during this call, just acknowledging we have received some written questions, please be assured that the company will seek to respond to your questions where appropriate. You may also submit any further inquiries through the investor center and on the company's website. I will now close the webinar and wish you a pleasant day. Thank you so much for your attendance.