Good morning. I'm Rafael Cruz from the AEDAS Homes Investor Relations department. On behalf of the company, I'd like to thank you for attending this call on our half year results, which run from April to September 2023. This presentation has been published on both the regulators and the AEDAS Homes website. Today's session will be covered by David Martínez, CEO, María José Leal, CFO, and Tamara Marañón, Director of Capital Markets. Afterwards, we will move to Q&A. We will start with questions from people phoning in, followed by questions sent via email or the webcast platform. For those of you phoning in, we recommend one question at a time. Before we get started, let me remind you that this event is being recorded, and it will be made available for playback on our website. I'd also invite you to rewrite the document's legal disclaimer.
Now, I will hand things over to Tamara. Tamara, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Rafael. Despite the persistence of market volatility, the growth outlook for Spain remains positive and well above European peers, according to the latest estimates released by the OECD. Employment continues to show strength after having posted a new record in the second quarter of 2023, exceeding the 21 million mark for people in work, and with positive perspectives, as the IMF projects a stable unemployment rate in the range of 11%-12%. The progressive deleveraging of Spanish households and the drop in the number of new mortgages are driving a decrease in outstanding mortgage debt, which has fallen below EUR 500 billion for the first time since June 2006. This situation is heating up competition in the mortgage segment, meaning that the banking sector is still offering attractive conditions despite the progressive increases in benchmark rates by the ECB.
While the housing sector recorded high transaction volumes in 2021 and 2022, now demand is softening to 2019 levels and an eventful year, but with very solid housing transaction volumes. Despite a recent stabilization in construction costs after a significant increase over the past years, production remains tight, with further decreases during the last eight months compared to the same period last year. And this trend, combined with a demand trend at more stable levels, contributes to support new build housing prices. Now, I'll hand things over to David and María José, who will take you through the operating and financial results. David?
Thank you, Tamara, for explaining the outlook for Spain and the resilience of the residential market. Now I'd like to take a close look at the evolution of our business in the first half of the fiscal year, starting with sales. Between April and September, the company booked net sales of EUR 451 million, up 7% over the same period last year, thanks to a significant increase in ASP, going from EUR 396,000 to EUR 444,000. I'd also like to point out that while our focus continues to be on the primary residence market, international buyers, which are a very solvent segment, accounted for 1/3 of our sales.
Our net BTS absorption rate is around 3.5%, which is a rate we are very comfortable with, as it implies an average period of 25-30 months to fully sell a development, which generally coincides with the new build development timeframe. Let's move on to deliveries. In the first half, the company delivered 637 units, up 22% over H1 2022, bringing in EUR 228 million in revenue, up 8%. ASP on these deliveries is down somewhat versus last year due to product mix and lower relative weight of customer sold deliveries. As you know, the vast majority of our deliveries are scheduled for the second half. As of today, we are comfortable with the current pace of deliveries and are fully confident in our platform's capacity to achieve our delivery plan.
I think it's worth highlighting here the difference in solvency between the AEDAS customer and the Spanish average, as you can see in the graph on the right. Well, now I'd like to take a closer look at the order book. These charts show the growth in our order book in the last six months, which was valued at EUR 1.45 billion at the end of September, with 4,280 units sold. As you can see, BTS continues to drive our order book, and over 80% is under a private sales contract, and cancellation levels continue to be very low and in line with previous years. This speaks to the resilience of the AEDAS customer base.
As I've explained in previous presentations, the company is continuing to focus on operational efficiency, optimizing our resources, and speeding up the rotation of our assets. As you can see in blue, on the bottom right, 80% of our total active units are on the market. As you can see in the middle column, close to 5,900 are under construction. I'd also like to point out that we are securing permits at a good pace, with over 1,200 granted during the period. Overall, we are maintaining very stable volumes across all stages of the development cycle. Let's see how this operating progress plays out in target coverage. We have a very healthy outlook on our goals for the next three years. Our current execution levels mean that we are in a strong position to achieve our business plan goals.
As of today, I can confirm that we are well on track towards our goal of surpassing EUR 1 billion in annual revenue. Now, I'd like to give you some more color on investment. In the first half, we maintained our selective approach to investment, committing EUR 51 million in both executed transactions and options. 75% of this activity was concentrated in our East, Mallorca, and Center regional branches. As a result of this dynamic approach, our land bank, which is 90% ready-to-build and 77% active, now stands at 15,300 units, and fully covers our delivery goals through fiscal year 2026. Now, I'll touch briefly on our ESG progress.
In the past six months, the company has seen a market improvement in our ratings, driven by the achievement of the goals defined in our ESG plan, which was approved in 2021 and is now in its third year of maturity. In line with the goals of this plan, all of our developments now have our Green Book seal or another recognized seal, such as BREEAM, and we are continuing to carry out a life cycle analysis on all our developments. Furthermore, of the developments we activate in H1 2023, for delivery in future years, 71% are targeting a Double A energy rating, and we signed additional agreements in the period with benchmark suppliers of lower impact materials.
The company is currently working on the next iteration of the ESG plan for fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2026, and we expect to announce the updated framework next year. As you know, Spain has a shortage of quality, affordable housing, especially for young people. Here at AEDAS, we are taking concrete steps to address this problem through our public and private partnership with Plan VIVE, which aims to put thousands of affordable rental apartments on the market in the coming years across the Madrid region. Through our real estate services division, AEDAS is developing close to 3,600 of these apartments. Over 90% of those developments were already under construction at the end of September, and the first deliveries are slated to begin in late summer 2024.
Developing these 23 projects is providing the company with broad experience in this, growing market, and we expect our services division to take a leading position in any future public and private partnerships of, this type. Now, I'll hand things over to María José to take us through our financial results.
Thank you, David. As we have already stated, the total number of deliveries in H1 comes to 637 units, and we are making good progress delivering the outstanding 2,400 units scheduled by the end of March. I would like to remark that the product mix of the deliveries in the first half, with an ASP of EUR 358,000, down 7% from last year, is not representative of the rest of the expected deliveries for the year, which will have an ASP in the range of EUR 380,000-EUR 390,000. Given the increase in the number of units delivered, build-to-sell revenues at EUR 229 million are up 8% versus last year.
It is worth noting that revenues from our Real Estate Services division come to EUR 1.4 million, as we have managed one project in a co-investment vehicle, as well as the 23 progress on Plan VIVE developments. Our expectation is that this revenue line will grow in the coming years, given our focus and track record. As a reminder, we delivered last year over 800 units in co-investment vehicles, and we are currently developing 3, 600 units of public concession of affordable housing for Plan VIVE. Moving on to margins, I would like to focus on gross margin analysis and guidance.
First of all, I would like to remind you that most of the deliveries in fiscal year 2023 broke ground between September 2021 and April 2022, and were thus impacted by serious disruptions in the supply chain due to the war in Ukraine, and very sharp increases in construction costs related to increases in the cost of raw materials. This fact explains 80% of the deterioration in gross margin. Furthermore, the hikes in interest rates over the last year and a half have impacted the capitalized financial expenses linked to the drawdown of construction financing, which is the explanation to the rest of this deterioration. These facts explain the deterioration of gross margin that you will observe in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Second, over this first half, deliveries have been concentrated in projects with a lower ASP and gross margin.
For example, we have delivered a project in the center of Spain at an ASP of EUR 276,000, with a gross margin of 22.7%. Looking to year-end, I would like to reiterate our full year guidance of gross margin of BTS between 25% and 26%, and total gross margin close to 24%. Regarding overheads, as our platform has stabilized, excluding the long-term incentive plan accruals, they have remained at similar levels to H2 2022. Last, regarding financial expenses and revenues, although almost half of our debt is set at fixed rate, sorry, the impact of increase of underlying interest rates over working capital lines and outstanding loans on completed product have implied an increase of EUR 1 million of financial expenses. Over this period, we have delivered ROE of 11%. Now, let's move on to the balance sheet.
As you can see, we expect to deliver revenues above EUR 1 billion over this fiscal year. Inventories, which have increased by almost EUR 250 million over the six-month period, reflect the strong progress in construction. I would like to remark on the high efficiency that we have reached with our use of equity, which is reflected in the stability of land value on our balance sheet, while inventories have experienced a strong growth. Available cash and debt evolution simply reflect the funding of the evolution of inventories and shareholder remuneration. In any case, we continuously focus on optimizing our debt and treasury structure and analyze any option on this regard. On equity, the EUR 50 million decrease reflects dividend payment last July. On shareholder remuneration, as a reminder, we amortized EUR 60 million in treasury stock in September.
Over the last three fiscal years, we have amortized treasury stock worth over EUR 80 million and have distributed dividends totaling EUR 250 million. In total, shareholder remuneration has exceeded EUR 330 million. Now, on our debt structure. As we have increased the use of construction financing, the weight of fixed rate has decreased, but by the end of this fiscal year, it will represent again more than 60% of total gross debt, with maturity in three years' time. Regarding available liquidity, as part of our treasury management strategy, we have over EUR 176 million in available lines to complete existing projects by the end of the period, and this will improve as we progress to year-end. Now, let's comment briefly on cash flow.
Given the progress on construction developments and land investment commitments and options from previous years, which totaled EUR 75 million, we have seen certain deterioration that will improve towards year-end, when the deliveries come through. Last, leverage levels are as expected, in line with construction progress. Net LTV is slightly above prior years, but will revert to circa 20% by year-end. All three agencies have reaffirmed their rating during the yearly review last summer. I will now let David share his conclusions.
Thanks, María José. Well, to wrap things up, I'd like to leave you with four key messages. First, although we are operating in a very complex and uncertain context, our sales performance is stable. Total sales revenue is up 7%, and we have excellent visibility over this year's revenue goals, as well as the next two, with a solid order book valued at EUR 1.45 billion. Second, thanks to the capacity of our platform, we continue to make strong progress on the operating front. Our current volumes secure our goal of over EUR 1 billion in annual revenues going forward. Third, in order to provide best-in-class return on equity, we continue to have a dynamic approach to the size of our land bank and be very selective in our acquisitions.
Finally, the company continues to enjoy privileged financial stability, with debt levels that remain in line with delivery volumes and construction progress. The company's strong financial underpinning, coupled with our current execution levels, means that our GRN outlook remains very positive. As of today, I am confident that AEDAS Homes will generate a record EUR 1 billion in annual revenue, this fiscal year. Thank you very much, and now we can open it up to Q&A.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star five on your telephone keypad. If you change your mind, please press star five again. We kindly request that you limit your questions to one per turn... Please ensure that your devices are muted locally before proceeding with your question. Our first question comes from the line of Ignacio Domínguez from JB Capital. Please go ahead, sir.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I have two questions, if I may. I can do one at a time, if you prefer. So firstly, can you provide more visibility on sales coverage ratio for next year's deliveries? In the last two years, by September, you were already at 65% coverage for the following year, whereas this year is 14% for 2024. Could you please explain why we should be comfortable with your guidance of surpassing EUR 1 billion in annual revenues in the coming years? Thank you.
Thanks, Ignacio. This is David. Yeah, well, as you have seen in the presentation, we currently have a significant coverage level for the following years. But what we expect is to have at least 60% of our 2024 deliveries sold by the end of March, which works out to 60 net sales per month in the last six months of the year, which is quite feasible. So we are fairly comfortable of achieving our goals for this year.
Okay. My second question is: How have absorption rates and housing pre-sales evolved during October and November?
Hi, Ignacio. Regarding October, November, we are above the average BTS sales of the H1 2023, so this means that we are above the 3.5% absorption levels. And we feel pretty confident that December is going to work as well, pretty well, based on our internal metrics of leads and second and third visits.
Okay, thank you, Tamara.
Our next question comes on the line of Fernando Abril from Alantra. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello. A follow-up question on demand. So you've mentioned around the Q3 trends. I was wondering if you can comment about the dynamics between domestic and foreign demand?
Thanks, Fernando. Well, as you know, the company monitors leads, visits, and sales in real time. What we are seeing today is record number of leads, which demonstrates great interest in our product. On average, we're seeing 6% more leads per month in 2023 versus 2024, and similar number of visits. So this confirms the appetite in our market segment. My personal expectation is that once this scenario of uncertainty, both in the geopolitical and economic context lifts, we will see a rebound, taking into account these increasing leads, especially come from foreign buyers. So, I mean, I think we're getting into the worst moment, but leads and visits remains very strong.
So this is clear confirmation of what we've been saying for months, that there is a real imbalance between supply and demand in Spain, for this mid to high segment of the market where we operate.
Okay. A follow-up also on demand as well. David, you've mentioned that you want to reach 60% pre-sales coverage ratio by the end of the year, by March. But that means that 6% of pre-sales in Q3 and 6% in Q4. So you will need to accelerate farther in the next year. So are you comfortable with, you know, being at 60% by year end, by fiscal end?
Yes, we expect to have at least 60%-
Ah, okay.
Of our deliveries sold by end of March. So this works out to 60 net sales per month in the last six months of the year. I mean, we are well above these figures, so, I mean, we feel very comfortable to achieve these sales.
Okay. Okay. Okay, good. And then last question on margins. Well, you've provided color on current fiscal year about the different impacts of cost inflation and interest rates. I was wondering, with such amount of units under construction and, you know, and pre-sales, I don't know if you can comment a bit more going forward about on fiscal year 2024, your any gross margin target you have in mind right now?
Thank you, Fernando. I will cover the questions on margins, if that's okay. Regarding construction costs and margins in general for 2023 and 2024, as we have explained, what we have seen-
... is that construction costs went up abruptly between September 2021 and May 2022, really. The estimated impact for fiscal year 2023 is around EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million. Okay? Construction costs did not go down in 2024, so in the latest contracts we have awarded in 2022 to be delivered in 2024, and therefore, construction levels remain at similar levels as those. Regarding the capacity to improve via HPA and to fully offset this impact in euro terms, we have passed some of this inflation to our customers, but in the end, the level of pre-sale doesn't allow us to fully offset the total figure. Also, as we increase revenues, because HPA goes up, the impact in percentage margin is still there.
You know, it squeezes a bit the percentage in margins. So expectation is similar margins for 2024. For the contracts we are awarding nowadays to be delivered in late 2025, early 2026, we'll see margins improving, and coming closer to what we have seen in previous years.
Okay. So the worst, let's say, of the cost inflation would be behind, past 2024?
That's right. Also, our forecast for interest rates is quite similar. We still see that interest rates should stay high in 2023 and 2024, and then normalize slightly for 2025, although we will not see the same levels we saw in 2021 and 2022. Mm-hmm.
Okay. Thank you very much, María José.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star five on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions from the phone at this time. I will now hand the conference back to the management team. Thank you.
Okay. It looks like we don't have any more questions from the telephone audience. We can now take questions from the webcast platform. The first question comes from Mariano at Banco Santander. You just pointed to a deterioration in gross margin in 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. How should we understand that deterioration in numerical terms?
Thank you, Rafa. Mariano, I think the question has already been covered just a couple of minutes ago. And as a reminder, we have seen deterioration linked to construction of around EUR 15 million, more or less, in 2023, and another EUR 5 million related to interest rate increase. And regarding 2024 margins, they should stay in similar levels as what we have seen this year.
Next question comes from Javier Díaz at Renta 4. Good morning, thanks for the presentation. My question is regarding gross margin. What we should expect for the full year?
Thank you. I think we have already covered the question as well. So I believe there is no further questions via website either?
Yeah, there is no more question. So this concludes today's presentation. If you have any follow-up questions, the investor relations team will be delighted to take them. Thank you very much for joining us, and I remind you that AEDAS Homes will be publishing a trading update on our Q3 operating activity on February 15th, 2024. Have a good day.