[Foreign language]. Good morning, everybody. I'm Greg Campbell, and I'm delighted to be here for the first time in the role of Chair of Ryman Healthcare and to present our full year results for the year ended 31 March. Here with me in Christchurch, I have Richard Umbers, our Group CEO, David Bennett, our Group CFO, and Cameron Holland, CEO of our Australian business. In a second, I will hand over to Richard to give you an overview of the year. Cameron will then give you an update on progress in Australia, and then David Bennett will provide the financials. We, of course, welcome questions at the end. You can ask questions either online or over the phone. Of course, you can connect with us afterwards.
For those of you on the phone, our operator will advise when you are free to ask a question. We're planning to wrap up in 50 minutes. Today, we're announcing a strong result delivered during a period of considerable disruption. We've been tested like never before, firstly with Delta, which significantly affected Victoria and Auckland in particular. This was closely followed by Omicron, arriving in Australia on Boxing Day, and the wave is still making its presence felt. The resilience, commitment, and professionalism of our team played a key role in helping us adapt quickly and respond decisively to changing circumstances. Our team's work has underlined that when things are tough, there's nothing better than living in a supportive community with the best of care on hand. It's enhanced our reputation for excellence, and word of what we do continues to spread well beyond our village gates.
We regard the strength of our reputation and brand as a considerable asset in uncertain times. In the past six months, other operators have closed more than 500 care beds around New Zealand because of funding pressures and skill shortages. That leaves 500 families desperate to find care for their loved ones, causing considerable distress and uncertainty. We're committed to continuing to build, to provide homes and care for as many people as we can. Care is paramount to what we do. It's in our name. We are committed to providing the highest standard of care possible, and it is key to our growth plans. The challenges the industry is facing is a key focus for management and the board, and we are making sure we have the resources everybody needs today and into the future as we grow.
It's an extremely exciting time to take over as chair. I've had a long connection with Ryman, and my 15 months on the board has confirmed everything I thought about this special company and its wonderful purpose. As a board, we're acutely aware how important Ryman's culture is and are protecting it. We are laser-focused on delivering a sustainable commercial performance in the current environment. In my view, these two ideas, delivering on our care purpose and delivering our commercial outcome for shareholders, are joined at the hip. Rising costs and inflationary pressures across Ryman, changes in the housing market, debt and interest rates are all issues that are top of our mind. Like you, we are well aware of the pressure on our share price in recent months. There's pressure on the whole sector and headwinds in the market, which we are not immune to.
However, these headwinds do not faze our plans. Underlying everything is our absolute faith in the strength of our business model, our reputation, our culture, and the commitment of our team. The momentum and increased payoff we are seeing from our investment in Australia and our continued focus on executing our plans and delivering our long-term strategy. That's because Ryman has enormous potential to continue to deliver in the years ahead. Just a note on our board structure. David Kerr, who has served on Ryman's board for more than 28 years, including 22 years as chair, has let me know he will be stepping down at our annual meeting in July. That's a long stint, and I think everybody would agree he deserves a break.
David has put in a huge amount of work and effort over these years, and he has played an important part in the success of Ryman. He will not be gone completely, however. David will be staying on as an advisor to our Clinical Governance Committee. On behalf of the board, shareholders, and the team of residents of Ryman, I'd like to say thanks. David's departure means it's a good time to carry out a formal external review of our board's structure, its portfolios, and skills, so that we can ensure we're in the best possible shape into the future. We will update you more at the AGM, as well as formally farewelling David. Before I hand over to Richard, I'd like to recognize and thank the extraordinary efforts of Rymanians everywhere, who have gone above and beyond to deliver an exceptional standard of care and this result.
Over to you, Richard.
Thank you, Greg. [Foreign language] everyone. As Greg outlined, we've delivered a strong result in a challenging environment, demonstrating the resilience of the business and the strength of our team. I'd like to start off by setting out the key highlights of our result. Our audited underlying profit rose 13.6% to NZD 255 million. Reported IFRS profit increased 64% to NZD 693 million, and this of course includes the investment property revaluations. The board has decided that shareholders will receive a final dividend of NZD 0.136 per share. The total dividend for the year is NZD 0.224 per share, unchanged from last year, and within our payout range of 30%-50% of the underlying profits. The record date for entitlements is June the 3rd, and the dividend will be paid on 17 June 2022.
Total assets approached NZD 11 billion. We had total cash receipts of NZD 1.4 billion, up 18.7% on the prior year. Only 1.4% of the group's Retirement Village portfolio was available for resale at the 31 March. We built 711 units and beds this year across the group in line with last year. As communicated at our half year result, our build program was impacted by COVID delays. We started work on four new sites during the year at Takapuna in Auckland, Northwood in Christchurch, and Highett and Ringwood East in Melbourne. This brings our total villages under construction to 16. That's nine in New Zealand and another seven in Australia. We also have another 13 in our land bank.
When complete, these 29 villages under development and in our land bank will be home to over 9,000 new residents. We anticipate capital proceeds from them of over NZD 6 billion. We're targeting a build rate of more than 1,000 beds and units in the coming year, a significant increase on the 2022 financial year. In addition, we continue to build our land bank. During the year, we purchased four new sites and added additional land at two of our existing sites. These sites nicely complement our existing land bank with a mix of townhouses and apartment-style developments, improving our mix of capital intensity. Today, we are also announcing two new sites, Rolleston in Canterbury and Coburg North in Melbourne. These are in addition to the two purchases made earlier in the year at Mulgrave and Kealba in Melbourne. Our construction team has successfully operated through COVID.
We are, however, continuing to experience some disruption to supply chain and some upward pressure on construction costs. The ongoing work and the exciting new acquisitions give us a great springboard for the growth as we continue to get ready for the increasing demand that lies ahead of us. We further strengthened our balance sheet during the year, and we further diversified our debt funding. Meanwhile, we continue to invest in the resident experience. Our Olympics@Ryman experience brought 700 competitors across 41 villages together to compete in the world's first Retirement Village Games. We made the most of digital technology to link competitors across New Zealand and Victoria to compete in a range of sports from swimming, walking, and cycling through to virtual bowls. It helped everyone forget about COVID just for a moment.
Olympics@Ryman was recognized with an innovation award at the Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards in Singapore, which are regarded as the Oscars of the industry in our region. Setting up the team for success is critically important, and our expansion necessitates good systems and processes. During the year, we moved to a group and regional structure. The structure has bedded in nicely and means that functions and responsibilities are clearly defined across our two key markets. It's come into its own during COVID, when travel was severely restricted and reflects the fact that Ryman is now an international business operating in two distinct markets. The imminent appointment of a New Zealand CEO will complete the final piece in that structure. Now, as Greg mentioned, the Omicron wave arrived just after Christmas in last year.
The teams in Victoria coped superbly, not only keeping residents safe, but providing a blueprint for our response when it inevitably landed in New Zealand. This put a lot of pressure on our teams, and as Greg said, their resilience and professionalism shone through. In times of crisis, of which recently, of course, we've seen plenty, trust is a valuable commodity. Being named the most trusted brand in our sector for the eighth time was a highlight for the entire team this year. We've now been able to turn our thoughts to the next phase of the pandemic. That's what we're calling living with COVID. We're optimistic that the COVID crisis is in the rear view mirror, and living with COVID is the new normal.
We have well-practiced drills to keep our residents and teams safe, and we can now look up to the journey ahead. I'd now like to take just a few moments to say something about my first seven months getting to know Ryman. Getting around the villages, I've been blown away by the way that our purpose, that is care, drives all of us, and just how amazing our team are at delivering on this purpose. Ultimately, I've come to realize just how positive our residents are about their experiences with us because of this drive, this care that we offer, consistent, unmitigated focus on our purpose. The result is that the only regret our residents seem to have is that they did not move in sooner into a Ryman village.
I've also been amazed to learn about the number of other things we have going on, things that most people don't know that our team do for their wider communities. Initiatives like the Ryman Prize, our annual charity partner work, and our extensive partnerships with NGOs and arts organizations, both in New Zealand and in Victoria, which all serve to reinforce our social license. Our strategy is built on our purpose, and since I joined, we've been doing a lot of work further refining our strategy for the future. We offer care that is good enough for mom and dad, and we do so in a commercially viable way to ensure we can bring the Ryman lifestyle to even more residents. We have a vertically integrated business model based around a continuum of care. It's proven its resilience during the recent challenge of COVID, and we're committed to it.
In delivering on our strategy, you can expect us to offer the best continuum of care for aging well, to deliver an unparalleled resident experience, to continue our expansion to new villages, targeting high-value sites to meet the ever-rising demand. You can also expect us to continue to invest in our people so that we can provide the leadership the sector needs. This Ryman team has the strength and capabilities to deliver, and I'm very much looking forward to the year ahead. This is my focus, a strong and unremitting focus on care, matched by strong commercial performance. Thanks for your time today. I'd now like to hand over to Cameron for an update on our progress in Australia.
Thanks, Richard, and hello, everyone. As mentioned, the Christmas dinner was barely cold before Omicron landed in Victoria, and it proved to be a challenge that tested all our planning and preparation on how we respond to a widespread COVID outbreak in the community. We came through well and were delighted to pick up an award for the innovative way we tackled the virus. The judges described our approach as ahead of the curve and recognized Ryman's array of infection control innovations, including moving staff into our villages who were more at risk of contracting the virus, developing a digital contact tracing tool, and being the first aged care provider in Victoria to introduce rapid antigen testing for visitors.
While the awards and industry accolades we've received for our COVID response are a testament to the outstanding work of our operations team, the result we've announced today tells a broader story of the strength and resilience of the business in Victoria. In Australia, we've achieved a significant lift in underlying profit from AUD 32.1 million to AUD 51.2 million, which is a remarkable achievement and a credit to the wider team's determination to find a way through the constant COVID disruption. While our operations team was busy doing a superb job, the construction side of the business in Victoria kept on pace and delivered on our full-year plan despite intermittent COVID restrictions. We opened our new Raelene Boyle Village at Aberfeldy.
We completed more new villa stages at Deborah Cheetham Village in Ocean Grove and opened the care centers at both Charles Brownlow Village at Highett and John Flynn Village at Burwood East. Our John Flynn Village independent apartments have proven particularly popular, with over 95% pre-sold in our final stage. Construction is underway at our Ringwood East and Highett villages, and we have resubmitted our plans to VCAT for Mount Eliza and are expecting an outcome later this calendar year. We have purchased new sites at Kealba, Mulgrave, and Essendon during the year. As Richard announced, I'm thrilled to share details of our most recent purchase in Coburg North. The site is near the popular Pentridge residential development in the fast-growing suburb north of Melbourne. It will feature inner-city apartments with multiple care options that reflect the changing demographics of the region.
Also, during the year, we added land to two existing sites. We acquired additional land adjacent to Deborah Cheetham at Ocean Grove in response to extremely strong demand at that village, fueled in large part by pandemic-weary Melburnians looking for a sea change with the security and safety that our continuum of care model provides. We also purchased our first operating village at Essendon Terrace, adjacent to our existing Essendon site. This provided an immediate foothold in the market while enabling an improved design for the future Essendon Village. Having Omicron land just as we had come through a difficult year was far from ideal. Once the COVID clouds lifted, our sales came roaring back as pent-up demand in the market was released. As a result, we finished the year with a record sales for Ryman Australia. Ryman is now well and truly on the Australian map.
As you may be aware, I've worked in the aged care industry and sector in Australia for some time and was attracted to join Ryman because I hadn't seen anything quite like it before. The model is a disruptor, a change agent, and we feel very well positioned to showcase our continuum of care model and lead by example during a period of very significant change back home in Australia. The plaudits we've received for our industry-leading response to COVID reflects this. We won two awards from the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, including the Team Award for innovation in our response to COVID. Ryman is transforming how aged care is delivered in Australia, and we are now well on the road towards becoming an industry leader, both in scale and thought leadership. Today's result just underscores that.
For investors, all the hard work and investment Ryman has made so far is being reflected in sales. Like New Zealand, there is plenty to keep an eye on, but we have withstood the sternest examination the company has ever faced, have come out the other side in great shape, and feel well-placed for whatever the year ahead brings. Thank you, and over to you, David.
Thanks, Cam. Good morning, everyone. I hope you're keeping well. It's fair to say it has been another interesting year for all of us on so many fronts. Given everything that has happened, I believe we are in a healthy position and can be very proud of the fact that today we are announcing a record profit of NZD 693 million. This is a lift of NZD 270 million or 64% on last year. The key driver of this was the unrealized fair value movement on investment property, which was NZD 467 million. While these gains are unrealized, they are based on the pricing we have been able to achieve in the last 12 months, as the valuation is based on recent sales activity and shows the growth and the value of our portfolio.
Our underlying profit of NZD 255 million was up 13.6% on last year. Our current year underlying profit was despite the fact COVID remained a challenge, and we spent an additional NZD 20.9 million on protecting our residents and the team during the year. These costs largely consisted of additional staffing, security, and resident welfare alongside additional PPE. These are the direct costs attributable, but ignore the other impacts, such as the impact on sales, particularly during lockdown periods. The main driver of the growth in underlying profit was the lift in our resale earnings during the year. This, again, is a reflection of the increased pricing, which lifted our resales margin to 26.9%.
I'd like to point out that due to the timing of these pricing increases during the year, we haven't seen the full benefit of these price increases captured in this year's result. We would expect resales earnings to further lift in the future as the number of resales grow and on the back of our maturing portfolio and the benefit of these price increases being captured for the full year. Our resale bank has grown to NZD 1.85 billion. This is the resale earnings we would expect to realize over the coming years without any further price increase. Demand for our villages is strong, with only 120 units or 1.4% of our retirement village portfolio available for resale at the end of the year. Our development margin was 24%, and this was despite rising construction costs.
This reflects our ability to keep a tight rein on costs and the high level of demand for the Ryman offer in the marketplace. We carefully monitor the timing of our presales and adjust accordingly. Our average new sale price has increased to NZD 814 thousand, which is double what it was five years ago. This new sale pricing reflects our focus on high-value locations over the last few years, and we are now starting to see that focus come through in our resale pricing as well. A Ryman unit remains very affordable. Our residents are freeing up significant amounts of capital when they move into a Ryman village. Taking Auckland as an example, prices would have to drop 27% before our residents stop freeing up capital.
We also benefit from building in high-value locations which are highly sought after and are always in strong demand. Therefore, they are typically more resilient during any market correction. We are in a strong position to weather any market correction and hold prices. In fact, we are likely to continue to lift prices over the coming year as we are more affordable than ever before. Personally, I can't think of a better time than now to buy into a Ryman village. Total receipts from residents were NZD 1.4 billion, up 18.7% on last year. Our operating cash flows were NZD 586 million, an increase of 41.8% on last year.
We've invested NZD 783 million into our portfolio during the year, which is spent on building new villages and continuing to invest in our existing portfolio through upgrades in the physical form and the resident experience. This is to ensure our villages remain in strong demand, and we unlock the embedded value of our existing portfolio. Our embedded value, which consists of our resale bank and accrued deferred management fees, has lifted to NZD 2.5 billion. Our gearing ratio has reduced to 43% on the back of our strong IFRS profit. We ended the year with NZD 737 million of funding headroom. Our debt continues to reflect the investment we have been making over the last few years. We've continued to diversify our debt with another successful USPP in April, which was nearly 3x oversubscribed.
This means the average tenor of our debt facilities is now approximately six years. With the hedging we have in place, 1/3 of our debt is fixed. What all this means is we are in a strong position to continue to invest wisely in the business to meet the demands of the rapidly aging population. I must say, after having toured our sites recently, it's easy to see where the investment we have made over the last few years has gone. The quality and scale of our builds has increased from what we were building a few years back, and they are assets that I believe will be very sought after for a lot of years to come. The high-value nature of our 29 sites and development means we anticipate generating NZD 6.8 billion of capital proceeds from these sites on sell down.
To put that into context, our 32 fully sold villages to date have contributed NZD 3.6 billion of capital proceeds today. This shows the scale of the momentum we have been building over recent years, well-timed with the demographic boom on our doorstep. Our total assets were agonizingly close to NZD 11 billion, and this is up from NZD 9 billion just 12 months ago. How would I summarize the year? For me, it's a year which has experienced its fair share of challenges, but I think we can be proud of the position we've ended up in. I also look out to the year ahead, and I'm excited about the developments we have in our pipeline, the investment we continue to make in our existing villages, our residents, and our team.
We are in great shape as we head into the biggest growth in the over 75 population Australasia has ever seen. This is why we continue to invest today so that this generation can benefit from living in a Ryman village. I want to leave you with one last number, and that is 10.1 million. This is how many hours have gone into caring and supporting our residents this year. Our team has done an amazing job, and they make this company truly special. After all, care is what we are about. This is the key ingredient to our growth story. Thank you for your time, and please take care of yourselves. Back to you, Greg.
Thanks very much, David. I'd like to now open up to any questions from any of our first callers. I wonder if we could take our first call, please.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Stephen Ridgewell from Craigs IP. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, and congratulations on the result, particularly the second half. Just wondering if you'd give us a little bit more flavor on the performance in the March quarter, which I think you've called out was a record for the Australian business, but didn't talk to too much detail on the New Zealand business. Also just wondering if you could give us a little bit of flavor in trading in the last few months, obviously, you know, the investors and the market is watching the New Zealand housing data pretty closely at the moment. Any additional detail you can provide would be appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Stephen. Well, certainly, Australia was certainly where the recovery was led from in terms of the sales, and the picture was quite different in New Zealand, where Omicron was, of course, flowing through the country. Cam, perhaps you'd like to just talk a bit more about how that recovery took place.
Yeah. Well, we were very pleased to see that it was quite a swift recovery after the Omicron wave in January. So we're close to 100 sales in February and March. What was particularly pleasing for me was that that was all of existing stock. So there were no new stage releases in the last couple of months of Q4 there. It was a really remarkable result, very strong leads, excellent quality of appointments, and significant activity on every site to drive those sales, and I was really pleased with the speed of the snapback.
Stephen, if I could add, you know, we're certainly seeing significant inquiry and demand is recovering, returning well.
There's no question, when Omicron arrived, it was a little more difficult, but, you know, frankly, things have really opened up again, and we're really confident about the future, and execution of that.
I think there's been quite a significant evolution of our brand through the COVID crisis in the sense that when the crisis began, many people saw the retirement sector as somewhere where you would go perhaps to risk getting COVID. I think what played out through the crisis is that we were able to demonstrate actually that we could protect our residents. What has played out as a result is that our inquiries are now higher than ever before as people see the benefit of moving into a village now in an environment where COVID is circulating freely in the community. That, as a result of that, we're seeing some of the highest levels of inquiry that we've ever seen.
All right.
Okay. That, that's helpful.
Thank you, Stephen.
One for me.
Thank you, Stephen.
On the NZD 6.8 billion you've flagged as capital proceeds from the completion of the current land bank. Can you give us a steer over kinda what timeframe we should be thinking about for completion of that? I mean, very, very broadly obviously, but the rough timeframe for completion of that. Is there any steer, even broadly, you can give us for kind of Ryman's aspirations for build rate in FY 2023? Thank you.
Yeah, sure. I think what I'll do is I'll just hand to Dave, who can talk more about that. We do, of course, take a very long-term view of our real estate. Dave, perhaps you'd like to elaborate.
Yeah. Thanks, Stephen, and thanks, Richard. On that NZD 6.8, Stephen, that relates to the total capital proceeds we would get from those sites. Some of those sites, we would have received some of that already. Like your William Sanders development that's already underway. What that is, though, is the total proceeds that those 29 sites will generate. Really, we would be expecting to realize that over the next four or five years as we build out, and develop those sites in our land bank. Obviously, we will be looking to add additional sites over time as well to sort of continue lifting that.
Next question.
Thoughts on FY tw-- well, just circling back, sorry. The second part of that question was, are you able to give us any steer on build rate aspirations for FY 2023?
Yeah. I think with the build number, Stephen, obviously, it's something that we monitor closely. We've got really good building blocks in place and all going to plan. We would expect to build sort of over 1,000 for next year. Yeah, we'll continue to monitor that, but that is our expectation at this point.
Great. Thank you. Just one last one from me, if I may. Construction costs. You did call out, you know, pressure there, and that's been widely reported, of course. Just with the prices you're getting on new sales and perhaps the demand you're seeing, can you give us a sense as to whether you think you can kind of hold development margin there or thereabouts from what you've reported in FY 2022, which is around about 24%, but again, can you count on or you might see that sort of come back a bit this year?
Obviously very difficult to predict what's gonna happen in the housing market. There's very mixed views out there. What I think is very encouraging, though, is that we have managed actually to build our combined margin over the course of the last 12 months, despite the fact that construction costs have been going up over that period. I guess there are some encouraging signs, and I believe that we've demonstrated that we've got resilience to be able to manage through a situation of rising construction costs, particularly in a market where we have demonstrated we've got some room to move on price. If you think about the increases in housing last year, some 30% or so, we were conservative in the way we put up prices through that period.
As a result of that, we've got some gap between the median prices in the market and the prices that we sell our units for. Does that answer your question?
Thanks very much. That's all from me.
Thank you.
Thanks, Stephen.
We've got quite a way. Next question, if we could, please.
Thank you. Yes, thank you. Our next question comes from Nick Maher from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Just wanting to understand a bit about sort of settlements and what you're seeing at the moment. You know, receivables did step up a bit during the period and sort of looking at the cash from new sales versus the actual sales numbers in the build and new sales debtors. There was a bit of a step up there. Could you just talk about that and whether there's been any changes to how you're all doing your accounting for those new sales? I couldn't see the sort of contracts not settled and contracts not booked in the presser this time.
Dave.
Yep, perfect. In terms of the basis that we're booking those, Nick, it is consistent with prior years. The lift in debt is obviously just a function of timing of when people do move in. In terms of settlements, we're not seeing any push out in timing of those at this stage. It is obviously something we monitor closely, but everything is at this stage consistent with prior years.
Thank you.
Next question.
Great. On the land bank.
Yeah.
The land bank lifting. Have you got any view on there that needs to get to hit your medium-term aspirations in terms of build rate and on land bank? Are you seeing any signs of, you know, better pricing signs come through there as things will change for the housing market?
Well, of course, during the course of the year, we were very pleased that we were able to continue investing for the long term for the business. I guess for us, this is one of the highlights of the result, not just the financial performance, but also being able to build for the future. At the moment, we're very confident that we're on track with the amount of land we're buying into the business to give us that future-proofing. As you know, as you go through the planning and approval process, there are issues that can arise, but we believe that we've got the ability now with quite a significant land bank to be able to manage the ebb and flow, if you like, of new sites coming on stream. Dave, do you want to add anything to that?
No, I think that captures most of that. I think the key for us is we're always sort of looking to keep adding and stay in the marketplace for new sites. We've also been focusing a lot on the consented sort of basis of our land bank because that gives us certainty of our build numbers going into the next few years.
Next question.
Yeah, and sort of the second part around land pricing, any changes there?
In pricing of land?
Pricing. I don't think there's been yet, but that's probably something we are monitoring. You are just starting to hear some noise of sort of development land starting to come back a little bit, particularly in the wake of construction costs. Yeah, that's something we are obviously monitoring.
Great. That's all from me. Thanks.
Thanks, Nick.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Shane Solly from Harbour Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Shane.
Good morning, everybody. First, congratulations on the strong results, the team's really hard work looking after residents, and David Kerr, thanking him for his stewardship. I've got three questions, if I may. First, the care piece of your business is crucial. Care profitability has obviously been under pressure. The governments, both New Zealand and Australia, are being slow to support the work. Can you talk about what you're doing with your care also going forward to lift or sustain profitability?
Yeah. Hi, Shane. Look, really good question, and, you know, clearly, care profitability is, you know, something that we're focusing heavily on. I mean, care is underfunded. There's no doubt about that. You know, we're really engaging with government to find a solution to that long term. I mean, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, 500 beds were lost in New Zealand in the last six months, which is, you know, quite concerning. We do, of course, have a, you know, vertical integration and continuum of care models, so, you know, our residents can take some solace from that that we can provide opportunity for them. What I would say, though, is we're looking with interest at the most recent budget.
You know, AUD 14.9 billion announced is the greatest we've seen for health over the last four years. You know, we have got an aging population, which is driving our growth, of course, and it's front and center for us. We're really interested to see, you know, the finer detail of the AUD 14.9 billion over the four years. However, the minister has repeatedly provided messages to support the growing population. Like you, we're intrigued to see the finer detail on that. We think we are part of the solution, working collaboratively with government to provide an opportunity for the aging population and the increasing care needs for the community. You know, we'll certainly be looking at that hard.
Any other comments from the team here?
No, no.
Mm.
Thank you.
Any, uh-
Just a second question, if I may then. Given the headwinds you noted in terms of growth, the flexibility and the development profile to actually deal with changes in conditions, could you just talk a little bit about that?
I think probably the fundamental dimension is that we operate a continuum of care model and a vertically integrated model, which means that there are several links in the chain which create value for us. There is a natural ebb and flow, as we've just heard in the previous question. At the moment, the care component of this is under pressure, but our model is robust enough in that we delivered a result through the other elements of the value chain. That therefore gives us a resilience that maybe some other players in the marketplace don't have. Dave, perhaps you've got some other views.
Yeah. Just to sort of add to that, Shane, I think if you look at the land bank, we are looking at the mix of our developments a little bit. We are a care business, and we're very committed to care and looking after our residents, but we are just making sure we have that mix right, given the current sort of funding sources and-
Mm-hmm
levels in place.
I think the particular focus, the area of the market that we focus on, which is towards the mid to upper end, the wealthiest generation in the history of mankind is now coming of age into the ages of retirement, and it's a particularly resilient base of potential residents for us. I think we're very well-positioned therefore to capitalize on that, and that, to some extent, mitigates some of the headwinds that are prevalent in the market at the moment. Okay.
Just a final one then. In terms of capital structure for growth.
I'm sorry, Shane.
You addressed. Yeah.
Sorry, Shane, could you just repeat that? It just broke up for us.
Sorry, guys. In terms of the capital structure to support growth, you have addressed or extended your debt, which is fantastic. Can you just talk about, you know, that loop back between the realization and what capital structure you see as ideal going forward?
Yeah. I think with that, Shane, as we sort of touched on before, we look at the debt and the composition of that debt, and it is to fund new villages that we are building. Our land bank and our villages under construction. We do make sure we actively manage that, and we are making sure we have the appropriate funding lines in place. In terms of the capital management structure, we have announced in November last year a tweak to our dividend policy with a more flexible range with a 30%-50% payout. This year's dividend is consistent with last year, which does represent a slight decrease on our typical or historical 50% payout.
that is making sure we keep a bit of more cash in the business to fund our future growth. also looking at that debt and the investments we are making. It's important we keep investing in our existing villages and resident experience too. when you look at that embedded value of NZD 2.445 billion that's in our existing portfolio, that's cash we're gonna free up in the next five, six, seven years. Ironically, it's incredibly close to that overall debt number too. We've almost got two ways of paying down our bank debt through selling down our new stock as we build it, but also the cash that's pent up in our existing business.
Okay.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew Steele, from Jarden. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. The first one for me is on underlying rate cost inflation. You've touched on that you know there are clear pressures on build cost. What are your expectations for underlying operating cost inflation and the build cost inflation for the year ahead?
I'd probably hand to Dave to actually answer that, but we do have a very strong supply chain and supplier base that we've built up over many years, which gives us some comfort that we're well-positioned to manage it. There's no question that we're facing some of those headwinds. Dave?
I think. If we look at the sort of overall cost pressure like construction, the supply chain has been under pressure, and that is seeing costs lift. There's sort of talk of 5, 6, 7, 10% lift in construction. We are working with our suppliers and making sure we have really good sort of planning lines in place, and we're working with them to make sure that we sort of rein in any cost inflation that we possibly can. The key for us is also making sure we can sort of monitor the pricing that we're looking to achieve as well to capture some of that as well.
If you look at the operating sort of side of the business, CPI has lifted, and obviously that's something we are trying to address as a sector with the government through the aged care funding to address that as well. But a lot of our cost inflation that comes from the P&L is actually just us opening new villages as well. About half of the increase in the operating expenses relates to new villages that have come on stream this year. When you couple that with another sort of over NZD 20 million spent on COVID, I look forward to one day us maybe not having to spend quite so much on that as well.
You want us to talk about Australia only or?
Yeah. I think just to add to that from the Australian perspective, we're obviously seeing cost pressures and inflation in construction products as well. I get the sense that it's not to the extent of the New Zealand region. Our long-term relationships and work we've been doing on procurement over the last 12 months and beyond has definitely set us up pretty well to be able to absorb that, but also to address the price rises on the other side as well to cover it.
I think, you know, going forward, we're a couple of months ahead on the COVID curve, so hopefully the COVID cost impacts that we've had over the last couple of years are starting to diminish and, you know, we can look forward to a living with COVID moment where we've got that largely under control.
Mm-hmm.
I think, Dave, just to follow up on both your responses. If I look at the increase in revenue over the last year, which was NZD 53 million, and then the growth in costs was NZD 21 million, sorry, NZD 71 million. Clearly, as you look at, I guess, an operating loss which opening up there, I think given your fixed fee model and funding pressures, you know, how should we expect this to develop into FY 2023? Should that gap open up further between your revenue and costs, or would you expect that there's some elements in there which are, you know, COVID related, which we should see it actually close a little bit?
Yeah. I think there are very mixed signals we're getting about where costs are going, depending on where you look. I mean, I think, you know, there are cost lines that are going through the labor line, obviously, with the cost pressures around people. The costs on PPE, for example, is something that's under particular pressure right now, obviously, given the medical challenges. Then there's the construction cost increases as well. There are very mixed views about how that's gonna play out. A lot of it is dependent on global supply chains, and there is some evidence or some talk that this is more about, you know, the location of products as it is about there is actually the materials in place.
I think it's a mixed picture at the moment as how those costs are actually going to play out. What I would emphasize, though, from the Ryman perspective is just the mitigations that we put in place to be able to manage through that. Being vertically integrated, we manage our own construction programs. We can decide when we start, when we release stages, how we do the refurbishments. We can, given our scale, also use that scale to be able to source alternative supply as well when things are in short supply. It's a mixed picture, I have to say. Would any of my colleagues like to add anything to that?
Yeah. Ken, I think in the Australian context, the other thing to keep in mind is that we do have a large number of developing villages, and we've opened up two new care centers just this year, and the other two are fairly, you know, relatively new. That ramp-up period does take a bit of a time. Hopefully by the end of this year, those should be largely full. I think the other thing to consider really is that there is quite a lot of legislative change going on in Australia this year, and there will be some changes to the funding profile, largely with the main aged care funding instrument changing to the Australian National Aged Care Classification in October.
You know, Ryman's model on the continuum of care basis is reasonably well set up for that change. you know, we should look forward to that funding change beyond that October deadline.
The only thing I'd add to Andrew is that, you know, we are, you know, laser-focused on, you know, the costs as well. We'll do everything within our power. I think the other thing that, you know, was touched on by Richard was, given our network, we're able to move our supply around and phase that accordingly, when it comes to supply and demand of various products. We're not immune to it, of course, but I think we're better placed than maybe some potential single operators, you know, in that regard. Well, I know we are. Undoubtedly, it's something that exercises the mind of the team and, you know, I've got confidence that we'll keep ahead of that curve.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Aaron Ibbotson from Forsyth Barr. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Good morning, everyone. Again, congratulations on a good set of results all around. I got a couple of questions on you know, FY 2023, if sort of forward-looking, if it's possible. First one, you know, you talked over 1,000 delivered units, which would obviously be a quite big step up from the last couple of years. I'm just curious to know if there's anything you can guide us towards what you expect the sort of CapEx number to deliver those would be. Then might as well run with my second question directly. That relates to just your interest expense. If I heard you correctly, you mentioned that you had 1/3 of your debt fixed.
I was just wondering, you know, does that mean that the sort of other 2/3 is fully floating? You know, am I assuming the right thing if I'm assuming that this is gonna drift up with the general interest cost in the market, or is there any other hedges or stuff in place that I should be aware of?
Perfect.
Thank you.
Oh, I can probably answer both of those for you, Aaron. In relation to the CapEx question, we don't give specific guidance, but if you look at our CapEx this year to sort of deliver 700 beds and units, if you were to sort of extrapolate that out to 1,000 beds and units, you'd probably be in the rough ballpark. It's probably the easiest way to look at that. Then in terms of the interest expense issue, right, we've got one third of it sorta is fixed. It does mean the other two thirds is floating. It's something we continue to monitor.
I think just with the interest expense, it's one cost line that we do monitor, but there's significant upside on sort of the other sides of the revenue line as well in terms of the extra volume we're gonna or development earnings we're gonna generate from the lift in our build program, and also the sort of under-rented resale earnings this year, given the pricing increases that occurred during the year, having had the full benefit. I think, yeah, there's plenty more upside to look at as well.
Very good. And specifically on cash, I guess if I look at resales, cash flow versus the resales revenues was roughly NZD 100 million lower on the cash flow line. You know, a lot of that was in the first half, but I'd sort of expected that to come back in this half. So I'm just curious to know, should we expect that sort of NZD 100 million to come in with a delayed effect in the first half of 2023, or how should we think about resales? It seems like you know, roughly NZD 100 million of resales has gone into receivables.
Yeah. I think with that, Aaron, it's just important to remember around year-end what was happening in the country with Omicron. People were, I guess, just a little bit slower to move and to, particularly people that weren't necessarily selling their house, so we did see a few people just sort of delay slightly. Obviously we were a bit more mindful of when people could move into at some of our villages. Yes, we would expect to capture that in the first half of this year.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from John Boscawen from Versoix Custodians. Please go ahead.
Look, thank you for agreeing to take my question. I've got three quick questions. First of all, David, I noticed on Appendix 17, on page 40 of the presentation, you have the Deborah Cheetham Retirement Village as being open. My understanding, that's actually still under construction. Am I correct?
It's both, of course.
Okay, great.
The village is open with the independent units. We have a village manager and a number of residents living on-site already. Obviously the rest of the site is still under construction, including the main building and the care facility.
This of course is the typical picture for a large number of our villages because we take a very long-term view and open them in a series of stages. The first stage at Deborah Cheetham is open and functioning with the team in place. That will now, over the next few years, in fact, have a series of new releases and new stages to it. You had other questions, John, I think.
My reception on my phone is not very good, so you may not be able to hear me clearly. The second question is, if I'm correct, you've delivered 419 units in the second half. Am I right in saying that only eight of those, the eight villas that you built at James Wattie were actually complete, and the other 411 would be units nearing completion? 411 of the 419 actually haven't been finished.
David, you're probably well-placed to answer that, but obviously we have, you know, quite strict procedures for the way we judge where what stage an individual unit is at. David, do you wanna elaborate?
Yeah. I'd need to double check that. Look, John, I think the key with that is the way we've assessed that near complete is completely consistent with what we've done in previous years. We have got people moving into our villages right throughout the year, and a lot of those movements have been occurring in the last few weeks as well.
I think, John, I think you've reached out to us and I, we maybe we could have a conversation at some point about those. I mean, they're quite detailed, some of those questions you've got there, and we'll come armed with the right information for you. Maybe if we could move to your third question.
Okay. I would appreciate the opportunity to talk face-to-face. My third question is, you've said that there is a record profit in Australia. As I mentioned in my letter to you, I was at the Burwood East village three weeks ago. Of course, the final apartment building with the 104 apartments which you're saying is nearing completion, the structure's not complete, the roof's not on, the cladding's not on. By your own admission, you're telling your guests, your residents that it won't be complete until November. In an environment of rising construction costs, how can you actually calculate the profit if the thing's only half-built?
Yeah. John, maybe I could, you know, as David has mentioned, you know, we have a formal policy. It's consistently applied. We only book units with contracts, you know, on those. You know, the key judgments that we make, you know, are made by management, the directors, auditors, and everyone's comfortable with that. I think, you know, as I openly mentioned before, you know, you have reached out to us, and we're happy to meet with you around the detail. You know, the directors and the management and the auditors are comfortable with the position that we've taken on that judgment. Maybe if we could hold the rest of those conversations to when we have an opportunity to discuss them. Thank you.
Can we have our next question, please? Okay.
Any online questions?
Thank you. That does conclude the phone questions.
Great.
I'll now hand back.
Okay. If we could have the online questions if there's any, please.
Yes, a question from Kim Santa. There's two bits to it. First bit for David Bennett. Referring to the income statement, revenues have increased by 2,228% in the last 10 years, but expenses have increased by 311%. What steps are being taken to reverse this trend?
There are a lot of aspects that are involved in that. Obviously the revenue number just includes the care fees and the deferred management fees. It doesn't include our resale earnings and development earnings. The cost base does include a lot of the costs associated with generating those earnings as well. It is something that we are obviously trying to look at, the cost base and how the revenue match of that. COVID's also had an impact on that as well. The key is that there is a slight mismatch between that revenue line and the cost line associated with the resales earnings in particular.
Second question from Kim Santa for Cameron Holland. Mount Eliza suffered further consent problems during the year, and you've resubmitted your plans to VCAT. What's the potential left with this site given the downsizing of your plans?
Right. Well, yeah, during the year, we obviously went to VCAT back in July. We were actually quite pleased, other than the decision in the end, with the response from VCAT at the time. The response from VCAT at the time was that they did support our proposal, but just wanted some tweaks to the scale. We're in the process of making those tweaks. We've resubmitted through council. That timeline has passed, and now we've resubmitted through to VCAT. There will be a hearing later in the year. They do take the previous decision into account in the next decision. You know, we're looking forward to pleading our case once again later on this year. Hopefully, we'll have a result towards the end of this year.
Thanks, Cameron. Question from Andrew Otto for David Bennett. Clarification on payments to residents of NZD 346 million. What is this for? Is it a refund of the 80% occupation right when the unit apartment has been vacated?
Yes, that is correct. That's what that relates to.
One more question. This is from Joshua Litton for Cameron. Why has Ryman purchased another site in Coburg North, when a year ago it sold another site in Coburg in arguably a better location or demographic? Second part, is David Bennett still managing development after Jeremy Moore stepped down in September?
Yes. That's a good question. I think the Coburg area is one of, you know, distinct interest for Ryman. We think it's a great location obviously, and one that really fits well within our strategy of buying in premium locations close to urban centers. It's, you know, 6 hectare sites within 15 km of Melbourne aren't, you know, don't grow on trees very often. This site at about 2.5 hectares is a fantastic size for us in our model going forward.
You know, I think in terms of the site change, what we did notice and part of the analysis on the previous site was the capital intensity required to build a site like that, which was, I think, the plan was originally for 11 stories. I think the right decision was made that that was, you know, not the right time to invest that much capital in one site in our current growth plans in Australia. Frankly, I think that's a mature sign of great portfolio management, and I can't take any credit for it because it all happened before I arrived. I think it was a perfect decision.
Now that I'm really excited actually that we found a site that we can invest in stages and release in a pattern that has appropriate capital velocity and one that is in an area that we know is a rapidly changing demographic with a very high median house price and a great part of Melbourne.
The second part of that was the development in New Zealand. Chris Evans, our Chief Construction Officer, is currently looking after the development aspects of the business instead of me.
No, no more questions from the web.
Great.
Thank you.
Well, look, thank you. I'll just maybe conclude and, look, we wanted to offer a really sincere thanks for your time and attention today and, for your great questions. As I mentioned, we're proud of what has been a strong result delivered during, you know, a very interesting, period of considerable disruption. The resilience, the commitment, and professionalism of our team, played a key role in helping us, you know, respond decisively to these changing circumstances. We look forward to reporting back to you, in six months' time and, seeing a number of you, of course, at our AGM.
I just wanted to pass on our thanks, wish you all the very best, keep COVID safe, and we look forward to seeing you again shortly. [Foreign language] , and all the very best.