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 ran from April to September 2024. 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 asking only one question at a time. Before we get started, let me remind you that this event is being recorded, and it will be available for playback on our website. I'd also invite you to review the document's legal disclaimer.
Now, I will hand things over to David. David, the floor is yours.
Thank you for joining us today for our half-year 2024 webcast. I'd like to start off by highlighting four key drivers behind the robust set of results that we will be sharing with you today. First, the outlook for the Spanish economy continues to be very positive, and our sector enjoys strong market fundamentals, with demand continuing to outpace the supply of new build homes. Second, the Aedas product is enjoying outstanding sales momentum, with net sales up 68% over the same period last year. Third, our team has picked up the pace in terms of units delivered in the first half, with total revenues from deliveries up 30% over the same period last year. And fourth, the diversification and growth of our platform.
Now, I'd like to recap the main actions we've taken to consolidate the Aedas Homes platform over the past six months, and then Tamara, María José will take you through the operating activity and financial results in greater detail. In August, Aedas Homes successfully acquired 100% of Grupo Priesa, known as Inmobiliaria Espacio. This strategic transaction has expanded our balance sheet with over 1,100 new active units, while giving us access to new but consolidated markets. The successful integration of the Espacio team and activity into the Aedas platform is a testament to our capacity to generate synergies and value from the moment of acquisition. Please do note, however, that the purchase price allocation is currently provisional and that we will share the full impact of the acquisition in our full-year results presentation in May.
That being said, we do expect this acquisition to deliver significant value to the company and view it as a step towards other potential M&A opportunities. In the first half, we also pushed to diversify our platform, aiming to generate complementary cash flows through new co-investment agreements and management contracts. The 944 units we were awarded through the Plan VIVE III, Public-Private Partnership Initiative, are now under construction, bringing our total affordable portfolio to over 4,500 units. We have also consolidated our Flex Living portfolio, partnering with well-reputed Spanish asset managers to develop this new type of product with close to 900 units across three projects. And finally, to further boost our asset-light approach, we have an additional 540 build-to-sell units under management-only contracts in the Costa del Sol area and Andorra.
As one of the most active players in land investment in Spain, we've continued our regular investment pace between April and September, selectively investing over EUR 110 million in ready-to-build land with a development capacity of over 1,100 build-to-sell units. This organic land investment, which does not include the Priesa Land Bank, is expected to generate over EUR 550 million in future revenue, primarily in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Our push to scale up and diversify means that we now have over 21,000 units in our land bank under management in the most dynamic markets in Spain. Roughly 7% of this managed land bank is wholly owned by Aedas, while the other 30% comes from our co-investment vehicles and pure management contracts. These volumes will keep us at the EUR 1 billion in annual revenue mark, while generating a stream of fees that will further improve our return on equity.
80% of this managed land bank, just shy of 17,000 units, is active. Of these 17,000 active units, 80% are on the market, and close to 10,000 units are under construction, putting us in a very strong position to convert these assets into cash in the next three years. Now, I will hand things over to Tamara to take you through our operating performance, and then María José for financial results.
Thank you, David. The first half of the year was characterized by confirmation of the pattern of rising demand observed since October 2023. The company booked net sales of EUR 641 million, averaging more than EUR 100 million monthly, up 42% over the same period last year, thanks to the exceptional performance driven by this strong dynamic of the BTS sales activity. The company sold close to 1,500 BTS units, or 250 units per month, up 68% over the same period of last year, with net absorption rates that have significantly risen from minimum levels of 3.1% in August 2023 to above 6% over the full half-year period, and with ASPs that are holding at stable levels above EUR 400,000 and are expected to continue to hold, given the higher ASP of the unsold units currently on the market.
I'd also like to point out that while our main focus continues to be on the primary residence market, international buyers are still showing strong behavior, with net sales performing in line with domestic net sales and continue to account for over 30% of total sales. Let's move on to deliveries. From April to September 2024, the company delivered 922 units, 738 BTS units to private customers, and one turnkey BTR development in Madrid of 184 units to an institutional partner. These 922 units delivered represent a 45% increase over the same period last year and brought in EUR 297 million in revenue, up 30%. The blended ASP on this delivery total was EUR 322,000 due to the delivery of the BTR project, with an ASP of EUR 172,000.
Excluding that BTR delivery, revenue from the 738 BTS units delivered came to EUR 265 million at an ASP of EUR 360,000, which is in line with the ASP of the BTS units we delivered in H1 2023. It is worth highlighting that these units were mostly delivered to customers who still benefit from a highly financially solvent position, as around 60% of them either paid in cash or got financing at an average LTV of 52%. And finally, despite the good progress on the delivery side, as you know, most of the deliveries slated for fiscal year 2024 will be concentrated in the second half of the year due to the respective development execution schedules. Now, let's have a look at our order book.
As a result of the net sales and delivery volumes of the period, as well as the integration of the Espacio order book, we closed out of the half-year with circa 4,300 units sold, or close to 4,000 units excluding Espacio, at an ASP which is 7% higher than the ASP reported as of March 2024, or 9% higher excluding Espacio. As a result, the order book at the end of September was valued at EUR 1.7 billion, with a stable cancellation rate at levels of around 1% and 76% of the units that comprise the order book under private sale agreements. Now, let's move on to coverage ratios. As you can see from our current coverage ratios, we are in a strong position to consolidate our goal of generating EUR 1 billion in revenues from deliveries.
Focusing on the market launches ratio, we would like to point out that our team is now hard at work on active projects for delivery in 2026. If we take this off balance, but active projects into account, the coverage ratio for fiscal year 2026 increased up to 98%. Looking now at the sales coverage ratio and based on the outstanding sales momentum, you can see that the company benefits from healthy sales coverage levels, with 90% of this year's deliveries already sold and over 55% of those that are due delivery next year.
And finally, turning our attention to construction, the advanced progress on our ongoing site, with circa EUR 200 million in Capex, the new project that broke ground in the first half, and the upcoming project, which had a building permit secured as of 30 September but hadn't yet broken ground, put us in a good position in terms of construction coverage for the coming years. Now that I've covered operations, I'd like to update you on our progress on the sustainability front. In line with the consolidation of our platform and diversification of our products, we remain committed to leading the transition to a more sustainable development industry in line with the roadmap set out in our ESG strategic plan.
In our push to make the development in our portfolio as energy efficient as possible, I'm pleased to share that out of our nearly 17,000 active managed units, over 12,700 are targeting a AA energy rating. Furthermore, of these active managed units, 16,300 are aiming for the internally recognized BREEAM seal on our own in-house eco-living seal. 9,100 have already had a life cycle assessment carried out, and 9,300 of these units incorporate modern methods of construction, which allow us to build faster, better, and greener, and finally, in line with our commitment to improving access to affordable housing in the metro areas where it is needed most, and especially for young people, I'd highlight that the more than 4,500 affordable rental units that we have under construction in the Madrid region.
These 26 energy-efficient developments, which are made possible through a public-private partnership under the umbrella of the Plan VIVE initiative, will begin delivery this fiscal year. Now, I will hand things over to María José.
Thank you, Tamara. This period's results are a reflection of the stronger delivery performance, corporate reduction, and integration of Grupo Priesa, acquired on August 12. Over the last six months, Aedas has delivered 922 homes. Of these, 184 to an institutional investor for rental, reporting EUR 297 million in revenues from these deliveries, has sold non-core land accounting for EUR 3.5 million in revenues, and recorded service fees amounting to EUR 5.9 million. These revenues imply an increase of 33% versus the same reporting period last year. Let's move on to gross margin, which increased by 23%, coming to EUR 69 million. There is certain margin dilution over this period versus last year.
Given the weight of the turnkey rental project on deliveries, the margin disclosed on land sales, and the new overheads allocation to the services business line linked to the new projects under management, we are reporting EBITDA of 28 million zc, an improvement of 56% versus the same period last year. The increase in number of deliveries implies an increase in sales commissions recorded. As a result of the integration of Priesa, the Espacio Group, overheads have experienced an increase of EUR 2 million , of which 1.6 is non-recurrent. Our living services business line, which includes customization of our homes, has generated 0.7 million reported as other net ordinary income. Last, net attributable income reflects the following impacts. First, the 70 million bond amortization executed in April 2024, which has generated over EUR 2.2 million in financial expense reduction, and interest accrual from minority interest came to EUR 3.4 million.
Net losses from minority stakes came to EUR 4 million, as most of these entities where we hold a minority stake are currently developing projects to be delivered over the coming three years. The provisional purchase price allocation of Grupo Priesa has generated a bargain purchase gain of EUR 15 million. The final impact of this allocation will be reported at our full-year results presentation. No goodwill is estimated from this integration, and the tax impact of the transaction has not been recognized yet. I will now comment briefly on the main aspects of the business lines in this reporting period and provide some color on the expected performance of each one of them. Let's start with Build-to-Sell. As David and Tamara have already commented, the demand dynamics are very strong and driving performance in this business line.
Most of the homes delivered over the first half of the year were completed and sold before March 2024. If we look at the developments completed in this first half of 2024, the gross margin achieved over the reporting period came to 24.3%, which is in line with the guidance provided for the full fiscal year. Now, moving on to build-to-rent business, we delivered just one turnkey project during the period, which provided a 14.9% gross margin. There is one more BTR project scheduled for delivery in the second half of the fiscal year. The most relevant change over this period relates to the awarding of and construction start of three public concessions in Madrid to develop over 900 new affordable rental homes. These projects benefit from next-generation funds and will be sold to an institutional investor in the coming months.
With the ECB's decision to cut interest rates, we expect to see an increase in the number of institutional investors looking again at the rental market in Spain. So we have around 600 active units, which our teams are currently working on. As we announced last year and in line with our goal of improving return on equity, we are increasing our revenues coming from our asset-light business, which relies on the generation of service revenues from third-party projects where we may or we may not take a stake. The most relevant change over this quarter relates to the stream of fees generated by the services that our team provides to the projects that Aedas co-invested in last year with an international institutional investor and a group of Spanish family offices. Fees from these projects have generated EUR 4.4 million.
The remainder are related to the first phase of Plan VIVE I, where Aedas did not commit any equity and which will be delivered over the coming five months. Finally, the new management agreements we've signed, which will generate a revenue stream in the coming years, as David covered, relate to Flex Living project business, which Aedas has taken a stake of between 10% and 30%, and to three new build-to-sell projects in which Aedas does not expect to take any stake. Total expected revenues from fees from all the new projects over the coming three years amount to more than EUR 19 million. Regarding gross margin, last year we decided to allocate overheads to this business line as the projects will be managed by our teams in the different regional branches. This allocation is reflected in the 25% gross margin reported. Let's move on to land sales.
We have sold two minor positions in Andalucía and one joint property in Madrid. Total revenues came to EUR 3.5 million. These small land sales are part of our asset rotation strategy, and you can expect more transactions on the second half of the year like these ones. The balance sheet we are reporting is a reflection of the progress on construction over this period, which came to more than EUR 300 million. Completed product decreased very significantly as most of the homes delivered over this period had already been completed at the end of fiscal year 2023. Inventories already reflect the integration of Grupo Priesa for a total value of EUR 76 million. The increase in subsidiary is linked to the minority stakes acquired with the Grupo Priesa integration, which came to EUR 27 million, and Flex Living vehicles.
Excluding this, the fulfillment of the King Street milestones have resulted in a EUR 6 million reduction and repayment of several loans for a total value of EUR 7.6 million. The reduction in cash is linked to the payment of taxes after the March 2023 closing and the payment of the dividend approved after the AGM. There is another dividend distribution of EUR 0.90 per share scheduled for December 2024. Now, the increase in short-term debt relates to the increase in commercial paper issues and a short-term corporate loan used to substitute short-term debt related to the Priesa Group. Total savings in financial expenses relating to the substitution of this group of this debt amounts to 367 basis points. The increase in long-term debt relates to the drawdown of new developer loans.
Last, the change in net equity relates mostly to the net profit generation minus the EUR 58 million distribution dividend and share premium last July. Now, I'll move on to debt structure and liquidity. At the September close, the gross debt composition was well balanced between fixed and floating rates, with the green bond representing 40% of total gross debt. The average cost of debt came to 5.3% and is expected to go down in line with the evolution of the Euribor, as this is the reference for 60% of total debt. Regarding maturities, over the coming 20 months, there is nothing relevant coming up. Last, we are maintaining our strong liquidity lines that provide us comfort at an effective financial cost. Now, I'd like to comment on our improved free cash flow generation over the period.
Over the first six months of the fiscal year, free cash flow came to -EUR 140 million. This use of free cash flow is related to the low level of deliveries we typically achieve over this period and the high level of construction execution in preparation for the full year deliveries. I would like to remark on the strong improvement versus the same period last year, which relates to our demonstrated capacity of structuring land investment schemes and the development of projects by leveraging on third-party equity. These two factors, combined with the higher volume of deliveries at this close, have significantly improved cash flow consumption. To finalize with the financials, this solvency is well reflected on our reported leverage ratios, which are in line with previous years and show the improvement on EBITDA generation. All three rating agencies have, once again, reaffirmed their credit rating over this summer.
I will now hand it over to David for his conclusions. David.
Thanks. Based on the strong set of results that we've shared today, I think it's clear that at Aedas, we're making the most of this market momentum. The Aedas Homes product is well positioned in terms of location, quality, and target market, and this is what drives our operational success. We've consolidated an order book valued at EUR 1.7 billion, and as we head into the second half of the year, we enjoy extraordinary visibility over this year's and next year's revenue goals. 80% of our managed land bank is now active, making this the largest active residential portfolio in Spain. The past six months have been an extraordinary period for the company, but we see further opportunities in the market to keep scaling up, and we plan to pursue them.
Finally, we continue to enjoy privileged financial stability, focusing on maintaining a stable capital structure while significantly improving cash flow and return on equity for our shareholders. Because of this strong financial underpinning and our team's execution capacity, my year-end outlook for the company is strong. I expect to deliver a very robust set of full-year results next May while we continue to consolidate our leading position. Thank you, and now we can move on to Q&A.
Please press star five again. If you have more than one question, please ask your questions one at a time. Please ensure that your device is unmuted locally before proceeding with your question. And our first question comes from the line of Ignacio Domínguez from JB Capital. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for the presentation and taking our questions. I have two questions. I will do one at a time. Firstly, could you provide more visibility on the gross development margin for the second half of 2024 for blended build-to-sell and build-to-rent, and if possible, for full year 2025? Thank you.
Thank you, Ignacio. I will take your question. As you know, our guidance on gross margin for fiscal year 2024 was only based on build-to-sell business, and this guidance was above 24%. The deliveries executed this reporting period were mostly completed before the start of the year, and margin reported on our completions over this fiscal year came to 24.3%. So we can reiterate our guidance. Regarding the build-to-rent margin we have reported, it was just one building and came up to 14.9%. And last year, we already said that our margins should be close to these levels on build-to-rent. Regarding 2025, our idea is to confirm our guidance once we report the full year results.
As you know, with the expectation of interest rates going down and a certain level of house price appreciation coming in, we should expect certain improvement versus these year levels, but that's as much as I can say. Thank you. I think you had a second question, Ignacio.
Second question is with regards to margins in the servicing business. What can we expect to be a normalized gross margin for this business?
Yes. You know that last year, we decided to allocate to this business line a certain level of overheads, driving the margin down to 25%. Therefore, the margin we are reporting implies that we are allocating some of our overheads costs to this business line. If we excluded this allocation, margins would be well above the reported ones.
Our next question comes from the line of Ignacio Romero from Sabadell. Please go ahead.
Yes. Yes, hello. I have a couple of questions. The first one is regarding M&A. You are mentioning that you're looking for opportunities, but what size are we talking about? Are you looking for small bolt-on acquisitions or something bigger? And I'll ask the second question later if you want. Thank you.
Hello, Ignacio. Thanks for the question. Well, as you know, the Spanish development sector is highly fragmented, and we see a lot of opportunities to consolidate the market. So first, I want to be clear and confirm that we plan to pursue all of them actively, and we don't rule out any opportunity based on size. If we can do it ourselves, like we did with Áurea Homes and with Espacio, we'll go for it. If not, we will try to get some financial partner to do it. So regarding your question, we don't rule out any opportunity because of its size.
It's been written in the press that they are looking for a way out of the company. And how does that fit with this strategy of M&A? I know you are not the main shareholder. You are, of course, the management team. But can we have a view on what does Castlelake think about their presence in the company in the medium term? And would they be willing to give up control of the company in case a good merger opportunity arises? Thank you.
Regarding Castlelake decisions or plans, you should ask them. But I can confirm that we had always the strong support from our shareholders, and they've never limited the opportunities of the company and they've strongly supported us in any M&A opportunity, so as of today, no changes at all.
There are no further questions from the phone at this time. I will now hand back to the management team. Thank you.
Okay, so it looks like we don't have any more questions from the webcast platform. We can now take questions coming from the webcast platform. The first question came from Florent from Oddo. How sustainable can we consider today your momentum in your pre-sales activity?
Thanks, Florent. Thanks for your question. I would say the momentum is very sustainable based on three factors, I would say. First, the structural imbalance between demand and supply. Take into account that today there are 250,000 new households forming every year, while the sector can provide only 80,000 new build homes a year. Second, the strong positioning of the Aedas product and the good levels of traffic in our funnel. And finally, I would say that a more favorable context in terms of mortgage condition. And I didn't mention in the presentation because it fell outside the reporting period, but October was a record month. We closed out the month with 309 net build-to-sell sales for nearly EUR 125 million.
Okay, so we have now a question from the telephone audience. Please, Fernando, go ahead.
Hello. Good morning. Sorry. So thank you for the presentation. I have three questions, please. First, on BB3, so why did you go with a risk on in this project? And also, what margin do you expect? And also, again, regarding this, so how big do you think the opportunity is in affordable housing going forward? This is the first long question, sorry.
Thanks, Fernando. I'll take the first two questions, and David will take the last one. I have to say that we wanted to take a step ahead on our commitment with helping to solve the problems on housing access, and that's why we decided to take a stake on this third concession. We have set up a JV with the construction company that is working on the project, and that enables us to be comfortable on the timing and the total costs of these projects, and as I've mentioned on the call, we are also quite advanced on the negotiations to close a forward sale agreement with an institutional investor. That allowed us to take this risk on the project.
Regarding margin, when we look at these concessions, given the low level of equity requested, we look more at the overall internal rate of return, and I can say that it's above 25% on this specific project, and I will leave with David for the overall opportunity.
Regarding the opportunity of affordable housing in Spain, I see that it's a good chance for us to scale up our activity significantly since the need of new build homes in the affordable sector in Spain is huge, and the demand is virtually infinite. As of today, we are developing 5,500 units in both Plan VIVIE I and Plan VIVE III, but in our pipeline, we have identified 44,000 new homes to be developed all across Spain, basically through initiatives similar to Plan VIVE in different regions and municipalities, and we are actively exploring these opportunities, and the goal here is to scale up our activity in this business line.
Okay. Thank you very much. Second question is on the land investments you've made in H1. I appreciate a slight change in the acquisition strategy towards second residences and also tier two locations, let's call it that way. So why this change in the strategy, and do you still see opportunities in Madrid?
Yeah. Our local investment teams are always scouting the market for new opportunities in their areas. As you know, we have a decentralized organization with six regional offices and one team dedicated in each of these regions to scout the market. So we see plenty of opportunities. From last year, the majority of the total land units investments were located in Madrid due to the strength of the market. But as we see that the second residence demand remains inelastic, we decided to increase our exposure to those areas in which the demand absorbs increasing prices and rebalance this way our overall exposure.
For your answers.
Fernando, you mentioned you had three questions.
Last three questions. No, Fernando.
Is there any other question, Fernando?
No, no, no. Sorry. The other question was already answered. Thank you.
Thank you.
Now we can go back to the questions coming from the webcast platform. The next question came from Javier Díaz from Renta 4. From the non-strategic line from Priesa, could you give us more color about the administrative phase if you are residential or tertiary, etc.?
I will take the question, Javier. Regarding these land plots, they are at very different development stages, and most of them are residential. Our teams are revisiting some of them that were advanced to review the feasibility of their development, especially in the eastern region, in Levante. In any case, the value allocated to these plots on the acquisition was very low, and our plan is still to sell them, basically because they don't fit our footprint.
Okay, so next question came from Hathik. Are your financials pro forma for the revenue and a bigger contribution from Priesa?
Yes. For this fiscal year, there were no developments later coming from Priesa.
Okay, so we don't have more questions from the webcast platform. Then the next one from Alba Osner. Thanks for the presentation. Could you provide any color on the bond refinancing?
Yes. Regarding the bond refinancing, the market momentum is excellent, as one of our competitors, our peer group companies, showed only last week. I have to say that our call protection ends this coming up November, and we are still 20 months away from their maturity. And that's as much as I can say for now. Thank you.
Okay. So next question came from Mariana from Santander. The total landbank has grown substantially to more than 20,000 units by first half of 2024. Do you plan to keep growing the platform in the coming quarters? If so, which will be the maximum amount of units you could be able to manage with the current structure?
Hi, Mariana. Good question. Look, when we take the company public, we set ourselves a level of 3,000 units annually to be delivered. In these more than seven years, we've reached that mark. This year, we will probably deliver close to 4,000 units. So I think the platform is ready to scale up our production and to set ourselves a higher mark. I can't say a figure, but the team is committed, and the opportunity is out there. So I think you can expect from us to keep pushing and trying to scale this up further. Thanks.
Okay. Now we have two more questions from Florent at Oddo. The first one is related with the Valencian situation and the impact of activity of Aedas Homes. In the short term, is there an impact on the ongoing projects, construction, and selling activity?
Before I get to your question, I would like to say on behalf of the Aedas team how deeply sorry we are for what has happened in Valencia, and that we are fully prepared to collaborate in whatever way necessary through our local team. In terms of short-term impact, we have no developments in the area that were affected by the storm. Nevertheless, we do expect to see an impact on the supply chain, taking into account that this area provides labor force and support to the construction sites.
Okay. So now in the medium term, will it represent any new opportunity for new housing construction in the region? So we expect stricter building standards?
In terms of your medium-term question, I think it's too early right now to make any statements in this regard. Sorry. Anyhow, as I said, we are fully prepared to collaborate in any way necessary through our local team.
Okay. So we don't have any more questions from the webcast platform. 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 12, 2025. Have a good day.