Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Equity LifeStyle Properties Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Results. Our featured speakers today are Marguerite Nader, our President and CEO, Paul Seavey, our Executive Vice President and CFO, and Patrick Waite, our Executive Vice President and COO. In advance of today's call, management released earnings. Today's call will consist of opening remarks and a question-and-answer session with management relating to the company's earnings release. For those who would like to participate in the question-and-answer session, management asks that you please limit yourself to two questions so that everyone who would like to participate has ample opportunity. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Certain matters discussed during this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainties.
The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by the SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information, and our historical SEC filings. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Marguerite Nader, our President and CEO.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report the final results for 2021. We began 2021 in an uncertain environment with the Canadian borders closed and changed travel patterns throughout our portfolio. The year progressed to show a heightened demand for our properties and locations. Our teams worked each day to accommodate our customers and meet the unprecedented demand. We continued our record of strong core operations and FFO growth with full-year growth in NOI of 8.8%, which translated into a 17% increase in normalized FFO per share. Our demographic profile and the increased flexibilities in personal schedules create tailwinds for future growth. In 2021, our core MH portfolio increased occupancy by 323 sites.
We saw an increased demand for homeownership with a gain of 785 homeowners and a decrease in rental occupancy of 462. We saw an increase in the credit quality of our new residents moving in with an average FICO score of 727. We experienced an all-time high for new home sales, with an 81% increase from last year with over 1,100 new home sales. Due to the strength of our operating markets, we were able to increase sales prices by 25% for the year. Additionally, we had robust sales activities in used home sales and resales this year. Turning to RVs, in 2021, the demand was strong for our RV sites across the country.
Full-year growth in RV income was 13%, driven by annual RV revenue growth of 7%, where we increased core annual RV occupancy by approximately 1,200 sites for the year and transient RV revenue growth of 43%. In the quarter, we saw an increase in RV revenue of 16%. This growth was fueled by marketing campaigns for fall and winter camping opportunities. The demand continues to accelerate for weekday camping. In the fourth quarter, weekday occupancy increased 18% as customers extended their typical weekend trips into Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The extended length of stay was driven primarily by our properties in Florida and California. The trend has been evident throughout the pandemic. In 2021, our Thousand Trails membership properties performed better than expected. Our dues revenue increased nearly 10% to $58 million.
We sold almost 24,000 camping passes, an increase of over 16% from 2020. The channel with the largest increase was our online channel with a 30% increase in sales. Our upgrade sales increased almost $15 million, fueled by the new upgrade product that we launched in the first quarter. Our quarterly survey results show the entry of younger RVers and remote work flexibility has increased interest in our RV resorts and campgrounds. Among those that reported plans to camp more, 26% reported flexibility to work remotely as a driving reason. About 2/3 of customers and prospects surveyed said that they plan to travel in their RV or stay in a campground more in the coming year than they did last year.
Turning to 2022, we have issued guidance of $2.69 at the midpoint for next year, which is a 6% growth in normalized FFO per share. The demand for our MH communities continues to increase. Over the last five years, we have sold approximately 2,600 new homes in our MH communities. These new homes improve the look of the community as the homeowners throughout our portfolio showcase their pride of ownership. We have noticed rent increases for approximately 65% of our residents and anticipate a 4.8% rate growth in core MH rent revenue. Our guidance for 2022 reflects the strength in our business. Our guidance is built based on the operating climate of each property, including a robust market survey process and continuous communication with our residents.
In 2021, we have deployed over $800 million of capital. Through these transactions, we added approximately 5,600 RV sites and 4,000 marina slips to the portfolio in 2021. We were pleased to close on the acquisition of MHVillage, Datacomp. MHVillage is the premier online marketplace dedicated to buying and selling manufactured homes, and Datacomp provides industry information, including market surveys and manufactured home appraisal reports. Additionally, in 2021, we closed on three parcels of land totaling 725 acres. This additional acreage brings our total undeveloped acres to 6,500. Our vacant land is geographically diverse and will positively contribute to our future FFO growth. Next, I'd like to update you on our 2022 dividend policy. The board has approved setting the annual dividend rate at $1.64 per share, a 13% increase.
The board will determine the amount of each quarterly dividend in advance of payment. The stability and growth of our cash flow, our solid balance sheet, and the strong underlying trends in our business are the primary drivers of the decision to increase the dividend. Historically, we have been able to take advantage of opportunities due to the free cash flow generated by our operations. This new dividend increase of $37 million is roughly equivalent to our anticipated increase in FFO for 2022. In 2022, we expect to have in excess of $110 million of discretionary capital after meeting our obligations for dividend payments, recurring CapEx, and principal payments. Over the past five years, we have increased our dividend on average 11%. Since the start of the pandemic, we have asked a lot of our team members.
Our team members are focused on providing excellent customer service in the new operating environment. Their results have been impressive, and I'm grateful for their continued energy and excitement that's dedicated to each role. I will now turn it over to Paul to walk through the numbers in detail.
Thanks, Marguerite, and good morning, everyone. I will review our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results and provide an overview of our first quarter and full year 2022 guidance. Fourth quarter normalized FFO was $0.64 per share. Strong performance in our core portfolio generated 8.2% NOI growth for the fourth quarter. Core NOI growth of 8.8% for the full year contributed to our normalized FFO per share growth of 16.6%. Core community-based rental income increased 4.7% for the full year compared to 2020. Rate increases contributed 4.2% growth, while occupancy generated the additional 50 basis points. Our 2021 core occupancy increase included a gain of 785 homeowners.
The continued strong demand for home sales has reduced inventory available for rental as we have focused on growth and occupancy from home sales. Our rental homes currently represent 5% of our MH occupancy. Full year core resort and marina-based rental income increased 12.9% compared to 2020. Growth from annuals was 6.8%, with 4.3% from rate increases and 2.5% from occupancy gains. Full year rent from core RV seasonal was flat to 2020. Strong demand for stays of a month or more drove outperformance in the second, third, and fourth quarters and offset the unfavorable impact of travel restrictions in the first quarter. Full year core rent from transient customers increased 43.2% for the year, consisting of 24% from rate and 19% from occupancy.
For the full year, net contribution from our membership business was $13.3 million higher than 2020, an increase of 23%. Dues revenues increased almost 10%, reflecting a 3.5% increase in the member base and a rate increase of approximately 6.5%. The increase in average rate includes the impact of dues related to our Trails Collection product, which provides access to RV properties outside the Thousand Trails network. At year-end, 18% of our members held a Trails Collection pass. Strong demand for our upgrade products is evidenced by the full-year increase in sales volume of 44%. Full year growth in core utility and other income is mainly the result of increases in utility income. Utility income is generated from billings to our customers based on their usage.
Our recovery percentage remained consistent in 2021 compared to 2020. Our earnings release and supplemental package includes line item detail for core expenses with comparisons to prior periods for the quarter and full year. Overall, full year 2021 core property operating expenses increased 7.7% compared to 2020. Setting aside sales and marketing expenses that are directly related to the performance of our membership upgrade sales, utilities and insurance and other expenses show the highest percentage growth. Overall, we experienced a mid-single-digit rate increase across all utility expense types, with usage driving the remainder of the increase. Our utility income recovery rate remained consistent with our historical level at approximately 45% for the year. We've previously discussed the impact of our April insurance renewal, which is the main driver of increased expense in that category.
The remaining expense line items generally had inflationary increases in 2021. Our non-core properties contributed $7.9 million in the quarter and $22.4 million for the full year. This group of properties has performed in line with our pro forma underwriting expectations. Property management and corporate G&A were $106.1 million for the full year. Other income and expenses net, which includes our sales operations, joint venture income, as well as interest and other corporate income, was $20.7 million for the year. Interest and amortization expenses were $108.7 million for the full year. The press release and supplemental package provide an overview of 2022 first quarter and full year earnings guidance.
As I provide some context for the information we've provided, keep in mind my remarks are intended to provide our current estimate of future results. All growth rates and revenue and expense projections represent midpoints in our guidance range and are qualified by the risk factors included in our press release and supplemental package. Our guidance for 2022 full year normalized FFO is $2.69 per share at the midpoint of our guidance range of $2.64-$2.74. We project core property operating income growth of 5.9% at the midpoint of our range of 5.4%-6.4%. Full year guidance assumes core rent rate growth in the ranges of 4.6%-4.8% for MH and 5%-5.2% for annual RV rents.
We assume occupancy in our stabilized MH portfolio will be flat to year-end 2021. Our guidance model includes the impact of all acquisitions we've announced and the impact of the debt and equity capital events we disclosed in our earnings release and supplemental package. The full year guidance model makes no assumptions regarding other capital events or the use of free cash flow we expect to generate in 2022. Our first quarter guidance assumes an FFO per share in the range of $0.66-$0.72, which represents approximately 25%-26% of the full year normalized FFO per share. Core property operating income growth is projected to be 7.4% at the midpoint of our guidance range for the first quarter.
The comparison to prior year is impacted by the results from our RV business, particularly the seasonal RV rent in the first quarter of 2021. Our guidance assumes first quarter seasonal and transient RV revenues perform in line with our current reservation pacing. Our customer reservation trends continue to indicate strong interest in visiting our properties during the remainder of the winter season. As a reminder, in years prior to 2020, the first quarter represented approximately 50% of our seasonal RV revenues for the year. I'll now provide some comments on the financing market and our balance sheet. As noted in the earnings release and supplemental package, we've raised equity from stock sales using our ATM and closed an unsecured term loan to generate total proceeds of approximately $366.4 million.
During 2021, we invested cash of approximately $650 million net of assumed debt and OP units in acquisitions. This investment was funded with available cash and proceeds from our line of credit. At year-end, our unsecured line of credit balance was $349 million. After using proceeds from our equity and debt capital events, the current line of credit balance is approximately $69 million. Current secured debt terms are 10 years at coupons between 2.95% and 4%, 60%-75% loan to value, and 1.4x-1.6 x debt service coverage. We continue to see strong interest from life companies, GSEs, and CMBS lenders to lend at historically low rates for terms 10 years and longer. High quality, age qualified MH assets continue to command best financing terms.
We have approximately $74 million of secured debt maturing in 2022. Our $500 million line of credit currently has approximately $430 million available. Our ATM program currently has approximately $30 million of available liquidity. Our weighted average secured debt maturity is approximately 12 years. Our debt to adjusted EBITDA is around 5.6 x, and our interest coverage is 5.5 x. We continue to place high importance on balance sheet flexibility, and we believe we have multiple sources of capital available to us. Now we would like to open it up for questions.
Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press star then one on your touch-tone telephone. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Our first question comes from the line of Brad Heffern from RBC Capital Markets. Your question please.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering if you could talk through how the Canadian border reopening has gone so far, and how much of a recovery of that is included in the guide. I think it was a roughly $8 million negative impact in the first quarter of 2021. Is there a full recovery of that assumed?
Yeah, Brad, in terms of that comp, you know, you're right, it was $8 million last year. Our guidance anticipates that we recover that, with growth in the, I'll call it mid- to high 10s in terms of percentage in the first quarter.
Okay, great. On transient RV, you know, obviously we've seen a lot of tailwinds, you know, sort of in 2021. I'm curious, you know, does that continue to be sticky, the new customers that you're seeing there? Any color you can give on that.
Yeah. It's Patrick. You know, the best way to frame it is around the new transient customers that have been coming into the platform. Just based on recent surveys, about 12% of customers new to us are actually new to camping. With those new customers, they're similar to our current customer base, average age is around 60. What we're seeing is a return percentage, them coming back to our property in the following year or intent to come back to us in the following year, is around 20%. That's a lift from pre-pandemic where that return percentage was in the neighborhood of 15%. They're a more sticky customer than we've seen historically.
Other surveys that we have indicate that, you know, 60% of RVers intend to camp more in 2022 than in 2021. Directionally, the customer behavior is favorable for us.
I think, Brad, too, as I pointed out in my comments, just that weekday, midweek camping activity has increased. I think Wednesday was the highest that we had for the quarter, which is about a 23% growth in nights year-over-year. I really think that's the flexibility in work schedules that positively impacts those results, and we anticipate that those would continue in terms of people having continued flexibility in their work schedules.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Brad.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Kim from BMO Capital Markets. Your question please.
Good morning, John.
Hey, good morning. Can you just clarify what the transient RV growth was in the fourth quarter? I think you said for the year it was 43% and for the quarter it was 16%. Just wanna make sure that was the case. Also, on guidance for the year, what are you expecting as far as transient RV revenue and Thousand Trails membership and upgrade sales?
To your first question, John, the transient RV growth for the quarter was up 26%. As far as-
Do you think that's a good run rate for the year?
I'm sorry?
Is that a fair run rate for the year?
On a go-forward basis?
Mm-hmm.
You're asking for the transient run rate for the year. Is that what you're asking, John?
Yeah. Exactly. It's tied into the original question as far as guidance.
I guess I'll say, you know, as we're looking at customer behavior, it's quite different this year as compared to last year, right? There's last year, the travel restrictions created some challenges for us in the first quarter, also translated into shorter stays relative to a shorter booking window, I should say, relative to what we're seeing this year. For first quarter, you know, we're anticipating a mid-single digit increase over what we saw, which was, you know, 15% last year.
John, similar to what we've had in years past, you know, the transient activity, you know, it really takes a little bit more time to appreciate where it's gonna be at, as the quarters go forward. We have less visibility into that, and so that's why, you know, similar to what we've had in the past, that's kinda where we're at.
Okay. As far as the expense growth that you have in guidance, it was up significantly in 2021, and you expect it to moderate this year. I wanted to ask particularly about the payroll costs, because that was really kept moderate at 2% for the quarter. Just, you know, given inflationary aspects to payroll, I was wondering how you were able to maintain that and how you see it going forward.
John, let me just speak to our expense growth assumption overall. We built that in a manner, it really was similar to the rest of our budget, which is bottom up. You know, we start at the property level and look at what we expect and roll all that up. When we have done that, then we take a look at the whole portfolio to understand what it's telling us about the growth and the expectations that we have. We then frame it, and I think about the disclosure that we provided in our supplemental and the line item detail. If you look at 2021, you can see utilities, payroll, and R&M. Those three line items combined represent almost 2/3 of our operating expenses on a full year basis.
You know, when we think about the assumptions, there's obviously a revenue element to it. Our expense assumption in the budget and in our guidance maintains a consistent percent of revenues for that, you know, on a combined basis, that 2/3 of our expense base. As we think about the business and how we might perform going forward, we may see some fluctuation in particular line items and some variability as our actual 2022 revenues may differ from you know, the numbers that are in our guidance.
Payroll in particular?
You know, we're not providing that level of line item detail, John. I'd say that with respect to payroll, we're focused on the attraction of employees to fill open positions that we have. You know, that's resulting in market increases. We've talked quite a bit about the experience that we've had in recent years, and we think that that mitigates some of the outsized rate growth that is being discussed kind of broadly.
Maybe Patrick, you can just touch on some of the operating conditions at the property level with respect to payroll.
Yeah, John, similar to, you know, covered in the last couple of earnings calls, we have, I think, to answer your question, have experienced some open positions at the property level. Some of that is really focused on our RV properties and particularly a seasonal component. As you know, we peak during the summer season, and we're in a little bit of a shoulder, and we're gonna go into a peak in the Sun Belt season here, in the ramp up to that currently. What our property operating teams have done in order to address some of those challenges in filling open positions is cross-training and sharing responsibilities.
The net result of that is we have consistently high customer service scores, which, you know, I'd like to underscore for our property teams. They've done a fantastic job navigating some of those challenges through the summer season and then as we're working our way into the Sun Belt season.
Thanks, and apologies for going over the two questions.
Thanks, John.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Goldsmith from UBS. Your question please.
Thanks a lot for taking my question. As we think about ELS's NOI algorithm, the 2022 guidance for core NOI growth is 5.4%-6.4%. That's a deceleration from the 8.8% generated in 2021, but that's still elevated on a difficult comparison relative to maybe the three years prior to the pandemic, which is around 5.51%. Should we think about ELS's NOI algorithm going forward as fundamentally stronger than maybe it was prior to the pandemic?
I think if you break down the pieces between MH and RV, we've kind of highlighted our MH rent growth. You can see that and how that's changed over time, which is a you know a significant component to the NOI growth and certainly to the MH revenue. The strength in annuals, RV annuals, both in rate and growth, is seen in the numbers that we've put out for guidance.
I guess the question is there kind of like something else fundamentally different that can kind of sustain this new elevated algorithm going forward? Is there anything else to sustain this algorithm?
I mean, I think it's the components that I just highlighted, and continued strength in our RV platform, both on the Thousand Trails side, and in our Encore business.
Okay. Then on the RV side in particular, expectations for 2022 core RV rate growth kind of moved up slightly from November. What was driving that? Then just in general with RV pricing going up, you know, annual rents moving higher, demand elevated, there's increasingly sophisticated pricing algorithms that are there to maximize revenues. Is there a risk that this affordable form of vacationing becomes less affordable and maybe the core customer is alienated?
Michael, as to the 10 basis point change, when we released our preliminary RV annual rate growth in October, we said that 95% of our residents had been notified of their increases effective in 2022. Since that time, there was a change in the mix of our occupancy, a slight change. It did increase our annual rate expectations because of that.
Michael, it relates to just pricing in general. We have our reservation system provides a dynamic pricing feature that really is based on a demand on a per property basis. Certainly, we watch the demand and then the rates are reflected in that. I think that the RVing lifestyle is still a very affordable vacation option and will continue to be so. But it's certainly something that we look at what's happening in the market. But right now we see real strength. There's about 11 million RVers on the road, another 40 million outdoor enthusiasts, and there's, you know, a little over 1 million RV sites.
Those are pretty good numbers for us, as we bring customers into our properties.
Thank you very much. Good luck in 2022.
Thank you, Michael.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Keegan Carl from Berenberg. Your question please.
Hey guys, thanks for taking the time. Can you just give us some more detail on the MHVillage and Datacomp acquisition? What's the rationale behind it? How do you guys envision it impacting your long-term MH acquisition pipeline, if at all?
Sure. I think maybe it's helpful to provide a little background on the strategy behind the acquisition. We've worked with this team at MHVillage for, you know, over 25 years. We've listed our new and used homes on the site, and it's really been a primary source of our new resident leads. The MHVillage business, they began, you know, back in, I guess 25, 26 years ago as a website really dedicated to listing homes. They've grown to where now they have 25 million unique visitors with 80,000 homes are sold each year with a, you know, I think a combined transaction value of about $3 billion. Then on the Datacomp side, they provide manufactured home value reports and, you know, price information appraiser reports.
You know, they really expressed an interest in a transaction where the shareholder would sell and then the seasoned management team would remain on and continue to operate that business. We were really excited to be able to do that and work closely with the MHVillage. I think it's gonna operate similar to what it's done in the past, which is, you know, continue to operate and, you know, offer longstanding customers the ability to access the leads.
I guess just for the second part of that question, I mean, do you guys think it's gonna impact your acquisition pipeline at all, just kind of given the relationships with other parties that might sell their homes on that platform?
It's more about one-off, a seller selling individual homes than about the communities.
Okay. Just kind of switching gears here, two-part question around acquisitions. First, within the quarter, could you disclose the cap rates on the additional transactions you've done? As far as 2022, any commentary around the pipeline and sort of competition you're seeing within the different business segments you participate in?
Sure. In the quarter on the cap rates that we closed, they blend out to about a 5.5% cap rate. The properties are really well located in areas where we've been looking to increase our footprint as well as new locations for us. In terms of just you know the pipeline or in general, I'd say, as we head into 2022, our investment team is really focused on opportunities in MH, RV and marinas. As we have contracts, you know, right now we have contracts in various stages. As we close on those, we will disclose that.
Great. Thanks for the time.
Thank you.
To our next question comes from the line of Nick Joseph from Citi. Your question please.
Thanks. Marguerite, maybe following up on the MHVillage, Datacomp acquisition, can you walk through the valuation of that deal?
The MHVillage, the model, maybe I just talk a little bit about the revenue model. It's really built around home listing fees. The owners pay to list the homes on the website. Datacomp is about, I think, 85% of the revenue is from appraisal reports. The valuation was roughly 9x EBITDA, and our guidance includes the impact of that.
Thanks. That's helpful. You mentioned, I think, 6,500 acres for expansion, and obviously you've been adding to that. What are the expectations, either in guidance or maybe it's outside of guidance, but what you expect to do in terms of expansions, this year in 2022?
Sure. Maybe Patrick, if you could walk through that.
Yeah, Nick, for the full year 2021, we delivered a little over 1,000 sites. The mix of RV and MH, skewing towards RV. We look forward to the 2022 pipeline. That's gonna come in, we expect between 1,000 and 1,100 sites, again, skewing towards RV. In addition to the acquisitions, we've talked for, you know, many years about our inventory of available land. We should be able to sustain that level of development for, you know, the next several years.
Thanks. Is there anything from a supply chain constraint or labor constraint that would slow it down? Obviously, you have the land, but are there any other variables that we should be aware of?
You know, we're navigating those currently, and we've been able to, you know, sustain this level of development, working with our internal development team as well as, you know, outside resources in the form of project managers and general contractors to, you know, to navigate some pressures that they have with respect to staffing and some of the pressures they have with respect to their subs. We have seen some pressure on development costs as well, you know, up commodities, lumber, steel, concrete's been relatively stable. You know, we've seen some more favorable trends in lumber recently. You know, those pressures are out there.
Maybe they'll impact it at the margin, but for the most part, we're pretty confident about maintaining that level of development.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Nick.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line, Samir Khanal from Evercore ISI. Your question please.
Hi, Marguerite. You were quite active in the fourth quarter in terms of the acquisitions. Just trying to kind of get to sort of a volume level for 2022, right? I mean, is that the right quarterly run rate to think about for 2022, considering how active you were in the fourth quarter?
Yeah. I think, Samir, what we did in the fourth quarter was really took advantage of some timing that the sellers at the time wanted to close then, so that was just, you know, something that they were wanting to do at the end of last year. I think we generally don't share, you know, like I said, the acquisition pipeline. As you look at 2022, we do have deals that are in various stages, but it's not something that we guide towards.
Got it. I guess, Paul, just in terms of G&A for next year, is that, I mean, considering inflation and wage pressures, I mean, is that corporate G&A side, is that something that could be even grow more than. It's been somewhat muted, right? I'm just trying to figure out from a modeling perspective how to think about that line item.
Yeah. I think generally speaking, you would see consistency with a bit of pressure on the payroll side, but also the recovery will result in travel expense that we really haven't had since first quarter of 2020. That'll factor into the comparison. Then we do have our continued investment in technology, which you know which contributes to growth in that line item.
Got it. That's it for me. Thank you.
Thanks, Samir.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Powell from Barclays. Your question, please.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning, Anthony.
Questions on acquisitions. They skewed towards, I guess, RV and marinas last year. Was that just by chance? Do you think the lack of any change in the tax code may be preventing some sellers from going to market, given an increased capital gains tax may have been a primary motivator for some people?
Yeah, I think that's just the way it worked out. I don't think you can take anything away from you know from not doing anything on the MH side. I think there's continue to be a lot of opportunities. It's really for the sellers, you know, what's the appropriate timeframe, either from a tax perspective, or mainly from a you know their own family perspective and when they want to sell.
Got it. Thank you. You've talked a lot about the midweek increase in occupancy for RV, and that's how it continues in 2022. What's your long-term view on that part of the business? Is there any risk that may kind of reverse or tail off as things hopefully more normalize with COVID over the medium to long run?
Yeah, I think that there is. I think for the next, you know, next six months or so, I think we're still gonna be in that same type of position where there'll be increased activity. Of course, we'll be working off of different comps because the comps we're working off last time didn't have that activity. I think that there will continue to be flexibility in people's schedules. Maybe it ends up being more of a Friday, Monday kind of flexibility, but I think that flexibility will exist, and we will be the beneficiaries of that flexibility.
Was there like a total, I guess, revenue number or NOI number that you think you can attribute to that better midweek occupancy in 2021?
I don't have that number here, but we can circle back with you and provide that to you.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes in the line of John Pawlowski from Green Street. Your question, please.
Thanks. Marguerite, on the margin, are you seeing private competitors become more active on building expansion sites, either on the RV or MH businesses?
We have seen, I would say on the MH business, there's not a whole lot of activity. In fact, there's, you know, there's some development, but there are some MH being brought kind of offline and maybe changed to an alternative use. On the RV side, there is more expansion activity than we've seen in the past. Not something that is, you know, an overwhelmingly large number, in terms of an increase to overall supply, but it is more than what we've seen in the past. Consistent with what, you know, we're doing more than we've done in the past as well.
Okay. Paul, you mentioned the forward reservation pace for the RV business is strong. Could you just quantify for us how far above or below we are today versus a year ago?
Sure. In terms of the transient, I think we're about 20% ahead of where we were last year. But again, I wanna be careful on that because, you know, just the timing of those reservations from year to year was meaningfully different. As we translate it into, you know, into revenues, I'll just restate. Last year, we saw about, you know, 15% increase and, you know, we think we're gonna see a mid-single-digit increase over that when we think about the first quarter transient.
Okay. A final question from me. Patrick, you acquired a big marina portfolio almost a year ago. Can you give us a sense for NOI growth for that portfolio in the second year of ownership that's expected?
Sure. You know, based on the performance that we've seen over the last year, and I, you know, covered it from our view of the business in earlier earnings calls. A reminder that 90% of that revenue comes from the core slip rental business, and that is well into the high 90%, a very stable annual customer. Those occupancies have been holding in the 90% range very consistently. We're able to get in the neighborhood of 3%-4%, you know, rate growth year-over-year. There's some marginal opportunity for occupancy and grid management. We, you know, expect to see some upside in rates in particular submarkets.
From an expense perspective, you know, that's a run rate business with some of the pressures that we've seen in our other core businesses on, you know, insurance and real estate taxes as an example. You know, a 4% expectation at the NOI line for the marina business is kind of where we're at and, you know, it's driven by that core stable top line.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Dennerlein from Bank of America. Your question, please.
Just maybe, just wanted to hear kind of more of your thoughts on the business rationale for the MHVillage and Datacomp acquisition. Like, how do you feel like that fits into your overall strategy going forward? Hello? Hello?
Yes, yes. I hear you.
Oh.
Ladies and gentlemen, please remain on your line. Your conference call will resume momentarily. Once again, please remain on your line. Your conference call will resume momentarily. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please remain on your line. Your program will resume momentarily. Ladies and gentlemen, due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be concluding the program at this point in time. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation. Everyone, have a great day.