Via the phone. Alternatively, for those on a home or personal network, you can ask your questions via the web by pressing Join Queue. If prompted, select Allow in the pop-up to grant access to your microphone. If you have any issues using the platform, dial-in details can also be found on the homepage under Asking Audio Questions. Press the Documents icon to see today's files and platform instructions. Select a document to open it. You can still listen to the meeting while you read. Text questions can be submitted at any time, and the audio queue is now open. I will now hand over to Brett Fullerton, Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Michelle, and welcome to everyone who's joined the call. It's my pleasure to present Peet's H1 of FY 2026 Financial Results to you today. With me is Mark Winkworth, our Chief Financial Officer. Next slide, please, Michelle. There we go. Thank you. So today I'm gonna walk you through a high-level summary of the first half results. We're gonna look at some key profit, cash flow, and balance sheet metrics for the half. Then I'll show you the primary operating drivers of our results, you know, where our earnings are coming from, from a business segment and from a geographic perspective. And then I'll conclude with some comments around how we see the balance of FY 2026 and FY 2027 looking. So next slide, please, Michelle.
So in front of you now are our first-half financial highlights, and I think it's fair to say it's a pretty strong result. Just picking on a few of those items in front of you, net profit after tax of AUD 50.9 million for the H1 . That's up just over 100% on H1 last year. An important part of these metrics, the EBITDA margin at 34%. First half last year, it was 26%, so 8 percentage points up. Gearing at 24.7%, just about in the middle of our preferred range.
At June last year, that was 27.5%, so that's come down a few percent, and it places it, places us in a very strong position, and we're pleased to be able to declare a dividend for the half year of AUD 0.065 per share. All of that has been possible off really strong operational results, just under 1,800 sales in the first half and just under 1,500 settlements. Very strong contracts on hand at the end of 31 December 2025, AUD 776 million, which gives us a lot of confidence as we launch into the second half and indeed into FY 2027 and a highly activated land bank. Next slide, please. As is well-publicized, we are operating in a sector that has very favorable momentum at the moment. Strong population growth continues.
The beneficiaries from a state perspective, WA, Victoria, Queensland, are the fastest growing states and even more specific and very positively for our portfolio, Queensland and Western Australia are experiencing the fastest net interstate migration. Housing supply continues to be constrained, severely constrained, and that's been well publicized. And notwithstanding the recent interest rate rise, our view is that our customers are still enjoying a reasonably favorable borrowing environment. And so we haven't seen any slowdown in demand because of that recent rate rise, and we continue to see strong interest from Australian and international capital looking for exposure to the Australian residential sector. Next slide, please. We got to move on to the next slide. Thank you. So we've just skipped a slide, I think. Slide can we get? And the one after that. We're going backwards. That's slide three. Sorry, folks. Slide four.
Yep, let's move to slide five. Let me talk to slide five. Sorry about that, folks. From a strategic perspective, as we confirmed, in fact, at last year's annual general meeting, our core focus is on owning and or managing large master-planned communities. Townhouses and low-rise apartment projects will continue to be pursued opportunistically based on geography, capital requirements, and of course, forecast returns. But we do have a portfolio that is located in desirable and geographically diverse locations, long dated aged land bank that ensures strong embedded margins, and we have a highly capable team that is certainly delivering some great outcomes for our shareholders. Next slide. Thanks.
So with respect to land bank, as you can see, almost 28,000 lots in our land bank, almost 17,000 of those lots on our balance sheet, 100% Peet owned, almost 11,000 in various funds management structures. As you can see, spread across the nation, 43 projects in total, and you can see the exposure to WA and Queensland on that page. Next slide, please. We understand we are, as the land bank indicates, a leading residential developer with a very large national footprint that comes with responsibilities that we take very seriously from an ESG perspective.
Just to call out a couple of highlights in that regard, in the first half, our Fort Largs project in Adelaide was awarded Best Master Plan Community and Project of the Year by UDIA in South Australia, and our Brabham project in Perth was recognized with the Excellence in Sustainability Award by the UDIA in Western Australia. Next slide, please. If I move now more specifically to the financial results from a profit perspective, firstly, and you can see on that slide, strong growth in sales and settlements. Sales increase driven specifically by Western Australia. Settlements increase driven across WA, Queensland, and South Australia. Because of those volume increases, strong improvement in revenue, which has flowed to the EBIT line, and because of the increased margin, we have a very strong profit number.
Obviously, from a proportional perspective, much higher than the growth in the revenue. So profit after tax, as I said earlier, of AUD 50.9 million, up just over 100% on the previous corresponding period. Book NTA at AUD 1.44, and of course, that reflects our assets, which are held at cost. It doesn't reflect the true market value of the assets on our balance sheet and the co-investments we have within the funds management structures. Next page, next slide, please. Looking at cash flows, so that improved activity gives us a higher cash inflow, AUD 238 million inflow. We haven't had as big a development program, the half just ended, as the previous corresponding period.
As you can see, AUD 131.7 million down to AUD 121.9 million, just reflecting the development cycle within the portfolio. Pleasingly, a little further down, the cash flow distributions and dividends from associates and joint ventures, material improvement there, and that reflects returns from our co-investments in those various funds management vehicles, giving us operating cash flow before acquisitions of just under AUD 71 million, a very strong performance and payment for land acquisitions, in the half was only term payments on the University of Canberra project, so a very strong cash flow in the six months. The next slide, please, shows balance sheet, key balance sheet metrics, so a little over AUD 1 billion in total assets. As I said, those assets are held at cost, book value of AUD 1.44.
A few lines down, net debt has come down from AUD 243.6 million at June last year, down to AUD 216.2 million, about a AUD 27 million dollar reduction in net debt, which has driven the outcome, the gearing outcome at 24.7%, comfortably within our target range. We also, at the end of the half, had headroom, so cash and debt facility headroom of over AUD 200 million dollars, which provides plenty of capacity to fund the portfolio and ongoing growth. Next slide, please. Shareholder returns. Because of the strong earnings performance, because of how our balance sheet sits, it does mean we're able to provide a strong dividend payment to our shareholders, and we have declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.065 per share, fully franked.
That is at the high end of our payout ratio policy range of 50%-60%, but we think that is appropriate given the performance, given our balance sheet, and given what we see coming for the balance of 2026 and into 2027. Also, on that slide, in the bottom right-hand side, you can see share price improvement. Obviously, that's a little bit beyond the control of management, but it is, it is good to see the market reflect better value, particularly over the last six months, given the performance we are generating. Next slide, please. So looking a little more closely at the operating performance. Firstly, where our earnings came from in the first half, and you can see on the left-hand donut, 55% of earnings were from our development portfolio.
That is our 100% owned on-balance sheet projects, and 55%, 45% rather, from funds management. Just to give that context, for FY 2025, we had 49% balance sheet, 51% funds management. So a little heavier skew to balance sheet because of settlement profile within the balance sheet projects. And then from a geography perspective, you can see that the major contributors are Western Australia and Queensland. So collectively, WA and Queensland delivered 81% of EBITDA last year. FY 2025, that number, combined WA and Queensland, was 75%. South Australia remains important for us at 12%, and Victoria and the ACT, New South Wales or Canberra, the Canberra region for us, are small contributors in the half but represent upside as we see those markets improving. Next slide, please. And then here you can see sales and settlements.
Sales on the right-hand side, Western Australia, a very large contributor. The Western Australian projects almost all sit within funds management structures. Queensland sales at 17%. Then on from a settlement perspective, 58% of settlements out of WA. A higher proportion of settlements out of Queensland at 26%, just given the development life cycle. Next slide. Thanks. And because of that strong sales and settlements profile, we've seen a material uplift in our contracts on hand. So from AUD 612 million worth of contracts on hand at 30 June 2025, improving to AUD 776 million contracts on hand at 31 December 2025. And that reflects those strong conditions, particularly WA, Queensland, and South Australia, and that gives us a lot of confidence as we move into the balance of FY 2026 and into FY 2027.
So on that note, next slide, please. Let me make some comments around how we see the balance of 2026 and into 2027 moving. So we bring a lot of momentum into the second half of FY 2026. The slide in front of you shows quarterly sales figures and quarterly inquiry levels across our portfolio, and you can see the lift from second half FY 2027, FY 2025, sorry, second half FY 2025 into first half FY 2026. So the last two columns are the first two quarters in FY 2026, and that is driven by WA and Queensland. And as we say on that slide, we have strong wait lists across the portfolio that give us a lot of, a lot of confidence about, where the balance of FY 2026 sits. On top of that, and the next slide, please.
We have shown you this slide in the past. The last three projects on this slide are new projects that will have an impact into 2026 and the balance of 2026 into 2027 and beyond. So these are, these are the major drivers of earnings and cash flow for the business. As we say in that slide, this underpins our very high level of confidence in the next decade, obviously subject to market conditions. And this is just 14 projects of the total 43 projects we have. As we've said in the past, the portfolio is in serious harvest mode at the moment, and that is very apparent from the results we're just announcing today and our view of where the balance of 2026 and into 2027 looks. So on that note, the next slide just summarizes our view with respect to outlook.
So, taking account of all of those factors, the favorable conditions we're experiencing at the moment from a macro level, population growth, supply constraints, given where our portfolio sits in its development cycle, our exposures, particularly to WA and Queensland, an emerging improvement in the Canberra market and in Victoria, together with a very strong contracts on-hand position, we feel very, very confident about the balance of FY 2026. Interestingly, we have a slight first half skew in 2026. That is only a timing issue, or timing, it's not an issue, it is only a timing matter. We, the team, did a terrific job in bringing forward some things into December that might have otherwise rolled into January and February.
So the first half is a little stronger than the second half, but we have upgraded our guidance for NPAT for FY 2026 up to AUD 86 million to AUD 90 million high end from the AUD 74 million - AUD 78 million we announced back in November last year. So at the high end, at AUD 90 million, that's a 54% uplift on FY 2027. And as I said, strong performance in WA and Queensland is a key contributor to that. And as we look even further forward, because of where our portfolio sits, because of those contracts on hand, notwithstanding FY 2026 will be our record year, we see earnings in FY 2027 being better than FY 2026. So happy to conclude there in terms of the presentation and hand you back to Michelle, and would be pleased to take questions if there are any. Thanks.
Thank you, Brett. There are currently no questions in the queue.
Okay. Thanks, Michelle. I think, is that a sufficient pregnant pause for questions?
I think so. There are no, still no questions in the queue.
All right. Very good. Well, I'm happy to wrap it up. Thank you all for dialing in today. Thanks for your interest. It has been a very, very good result. We're very pleased to be able to report it and reward our shareholders. We look forward to a really strong second half and an even better FY 2027, and look forward to catching up with many on this call one-on-one, in a few weeks' time.