Ingenia Communities Group

ASX:INA

Earnings Call Analysis

Ingenia Posts Strong Revenue and EBIT Growth

Ingenia Communities has seen robust performance with total revenue climbing 22% to $211.6 million and underlying EBIT soaring 34% to $55.1 million, thanks to strong contributions from Lifestyle and Rental, Lifestyle Development, and Holidays. The Group's underlying profit grew 27%, achieving an EPS of $0.107, even with higher interest costs from increased funding and debt. An interim distribution of $0.052 per security maintains consistency with the previous year. The EBIT margin improved from 23.7% to 26.1% on the back of EBIT gains in various divisions, although the group's cost base also increased. With a prudent balance sheet, a low LVR of 33.3%, and $143 million in cash and undrawn debt, Ingenia is well-positioned for upcoming debt maturities not due until December 2025. The Holidays portfolio saw a value increase of over $50 million in six months, despite a cap rate increase to 8.85%.

Company Overview and Leadership Changes

Ingenia presented its half year results for the period ended December 31, 2023. The company, operating 102 properties and managing over 15,700 income-generating sites, saw a notable CEO change with Simon Owen's departure after a decade of transforming Ingenia and the sector. John Carfi is set to take on the CEO role starting April 2. Ingenia remains committed to providing affordable housing and capitalizing on strong domestic travel demand.

Financial Performance Highlights

Ingenia reported a 22% increase in total revenue to $211.6 million with contributions from various segments, including a 13% increase in Lifestyle and Rental revenues and an 11% rise in Ingenia Holidays revenue. Despite higher borrowing costs, the company realized a 27% EPS growth to $0.107 per security and declared an interim distribution consistent with the prior year, at $0.052 per security. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance anticipating 10-15% growth in EBIT and an underlying EPS of $0.208 to $0.223 per security.

Strength in Lifestyle Rental

Lifestyle Rental, merging Ingenia Lifestyle and all age rental portfolios, saw an 18% EBIT upswing from a 13% revenue boost, majorly driven by CPI-linked rent increases and the addition of new rent-producing sites. Ingenia managed to aid affordability through governmental support, ensuring the business remains a competitive housing option. On the flip side, the Gardens division faced a 7% EBIT dip, attributed to asset disposals. Margins in the Lifestyle Rental segment slightly dipped compared to prior comparable periods, but showed signs of improvement heading into the second half.

Tourism Segment's Strong Performance

Tourism, managed by Matthew Young, pursued increasing visibility with modern platforms such as Airbnb and strategic marketing to boost direct bookings and reduce costs. Ingenia's site densification strategy paid off, transforming $5,000 per year sites into $55,000 yielding tourism cabins. The company's inaugural marketing campaign contributed to a record-breaking 460,000 website visits, and Ingenia remains hopeful for continued growth in revenue and EBIT margins for the tourism market.

Capital Management and Operating Profit

Ingenia prioritizes rigorous capital management, balancing robust pipeline delivery and capital recycling. With a leveraged ratio (LVR) of 33.3%, they maintain conservative balance sheet strategies. Recent discussions with banking partners show strong ongoing support and the potential to heighten debt capacity as Ingenia's portfolio expands. Despite a slight EBIT margin reduction in the Lifestyle Rental, the division has continued to perform well, with expectations for margins to pick up in the second half.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Ingenia Communities First Half 2024 Results Teleconference and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Justin Mitchell, CFO. Please go ahead.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Great. Thanks, Kylie. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us here today. My name is Justin Mitchell, and I'm pleased to present Ingenia's half year results for the year -- for the period ended 31 December 2023.

I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land in which we meet today and pay my respects to First Nation's elders past, present and emerging. Joining me here in Sydney is the executive leadership team: Von Slater, EGM for Development and Sales; Justin Blumfield, EGM for Residential; Matt Young, our EGM for Tourism; Natalie Kwok, our Chief Investment Officer; and Donna Byrne, our Group Head of Investor Relations. The team will be presenting their respective divisional results and will be available for questions at the end.

A notable absence after more than 10 years is our departing CEO, Simon Owen. I'd like to take the opportunity to recognize his contribution not only to Ingenia, but also to the broader land lease and holiday sectors in Australia. In 2013, under Simon's leadership, Ingenia had the foresight to see the opportunity in manufactured homes and today has a leading presence in this industry. He also has been a key driver of the acceptance of the Australian land lease community as an investment-grade property sector. On behalf of the Ingenia team, I sincerely wish Simon all the very best for the future.

As recently announced, John Carfi will be joining Ingenia on the second of April as our new CEO. John brings a wealth of property construction and development experience. And the team and I look forward to working with John and continuing the next evolution of the Ingenia Group.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank the Ingenia team. The teams that operate and support the communities and parks that collectively manage over 15,700 income-generating sites down the east coast of Australia. I'm proud and energized by the commitment, dedication and importantly, compassion for our people and their focus on our residents and visitors every day.

Now turning to Page 4. The last 6 months has continued to be extremely busy as the business delivers on its strategy while undertaking change in our leadership. We now own or manage 102 individual properties and more than 15,700 income-generating units, delivering stable rent-based cash flows across a diverse range of revenue basis.

Key drivers that underpin our business model remain firmly in place, an aging population, a housing affordability crisis, access to rental accommodation and buoyant demand for domestic travel. Our Lifestyle and Rental communities, which includes both land lease and all age rentals continue to record high levels of occupancy and strong rental growth. Access to affordable housing continues to be a significant issue and is unlikely to improve for some time.

I recently had the opportunity to visit 2 of our all age communities in Brisbane, where we have invested in new affordable rental homes. There is no vacancy in these communities and a significant waitlist. We also have approvals in place to add new homes, which will continue to roll out over the coming years.

Domestic holidays momentum has continued and Ingenia has certainly benefited. This business saw further growth driven by increased occupancy and rate, coupled with organic investment. Families continue to want to book holidays, but are also obviously conscious of rising living costs. Affordable domestic travel continues to be a very viable option. And Ingenia remains focused on execution within our land lease development portfolio. We have an extensive pipeline of over 5,900 sites, with exposure to diverse markets and price points in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. This will deliver opportunities for future growth in rental annuities.

Now turning to Slide 7 to cover results. I'm pleased to report that the group has delivered a solid underlying result for the 6 months. Total revenue for the group increased 22% to $211.6 million, with strong contributions across our diverse revenue streams, including Lifestyle and Rental, Lifestyle Development and our Holidays business. Lifestyle and Rental increased 13% to $42.1 million, with CPI-linked rental increases, organic investment and new rental homes' income from homes recently settled. Revenue from Ingenia Holidays increased 11% to $66.5 million, with continuing strong demand within our holiday parks. There are also higher revenue from development as a result of settling 176 homes, an increase compared to prior period.

Our development pipeline has been extended with 3 new DAs achieved and an additional site being progressed with our joint venture partner, Sun Communities. This revenue growth has flowed to the group's underlying EBIT of $55.1 million, an uplift of 34% from prior year. The group's underlying profit was $43.5 million, delivering an EPS of $0.107 per security. This was a 27% increase. This continues to be impacted by increased interest costs associated with both higher cost of funding and increases in our drawn debt. Statutory profit and EPS increased by 26%, benefiting from revaluation increments, particularly from our tourism assets that I will discuss shortly.

An interim distribution of $0.052 per security has been declared, which is consistent with the prior year. This result puts Ingenia on track to deliver FY '24 guidance announced at our full year results in August.

Moving to Slide 9 on divisional EBIT. Overall, the group has seen positive EBIT growth contributions across Lifestyle, Rental, Development and Holidays, with margins also improving. The group's overall EBIT margin increased from 23.7% to 26.1%. As previously mentioned, the Lifestyle and Rental business has delivered strong growth, with EBIT increasing 18% to $19.3 million.

Lifestyle development, which was impacted in the prior period by construction challenges has pleasingly seen an increase in new home settlements driving an uplift in EBIT to $16 million. The Ingenia Gardens result was impacted by the disposal of 2 assets last year and the impact of the 6 WA assets disposed in December.

Holidays benefited from higher volumes, with EBIT increasing to $24.3 million and its EBIT margin increasing to 36.5%. We have continued to selectively invest in organic growth within this business, including the addition of new holiday cabins, permanent and rental homes as we seek to diversify our earnings streams. The group's cost base has increased also, reflecting ongoing inflationary pressure and growth in our underlying portfolio. Development cost increases reflect the expansion of the delivery and delivery of our development pipeline, including marketing, which is incurred ahead of settlements.

Holidays expenditure was also higher due to the impact of volume-related costs, which are associated with the significant increase in revenue. Additionally, we have increased the investment in marketing to attract and retain customers to the Ingenia brand.

Turning to Slide 10. I'll now discuss our balance sheet and capital management. The group has maintained a prudent balance sheet setting and is well-positioned with an LVR of 33.3% as at December. Our gearing was 26.5%. We have sufficient funding headroom, with $143 million in cash and available undrawn debt and our next debt maturity is not until December 2025. From a cost of debt perspective, we continue to manage this with approximately 52% of our drawn debt either fixed or hedged, with a weighted average maturity of 2.3 years.

We have continued to selectively identify opportunities to recycle capital throughout the year with $64 million divested. As announced, we settled the Ingenia Gardens WA assets in December at a 14% premium to book value. Together with strong cash flows from our Lifestyle Rental and Holidays business, we are focused on managing the capital requirements of our development pipeline and incremental investment in rentals and holidays.

Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to meet with Ingenia's banking partners. They continue to have very strong support for Ingenia and we are currently in active discussions to increase the group's debt capacity as the portfolio grows.

Turning to Slide 11. For the half year, we undertook independent valuations of 45 assets, representing 51% of the portfolio. Overall, there was a fair value -- a net fair value uplift. Lifestyle and Rental, which includes both the land lease and all age assets business saw continued strong operating performance provided by CPI-linked rental increases, offset by cap rate increasing 3 basis points. We have now split this out -- this portfolio out to show the components of Lifestyle and Rental.

Land lease cap rates increased 6 basis points to 5.04%, while all age rental cap rates decreased 5 basis points to 6.08%. The overall decline in lifestyle valuations reflects the combined impact of the changes I mentioned above, together with the impact of development fair value changes. The majority of this valuation decline represents the release of embedded profits on settlement of new homes.

The Holidays portfolio value increased by over $50 million over the 6 months off the back of continued strong and consistent NOI growth, now being reflected in underlying valuation. This was offset partially by cap rates increasing 15 basis points to 8.85%. Ingenia Gardens remained relatively stable. This was due to a decrease in rates -- cap rates of 15 basis points, offset by margin pressures impacting our NOI growth.

Now turning to our Residential Communities briefly on Page 13 before I hand over to Von. The group now operates in excess of 10,800 rental sites, including within our mixed-use holiday parks, meeting the growing demands for affordable housing and an aging population. This is the core of Ingenia's operating model, underpinned by owning land and collecting rent. This model delivers reliable and consistent cash flows and are predominantly linked to CPI and often supported by Commonwealth pension and rental-assistant payments. The development business allows the group to continue its growth by developing new homes and creating lasting communities where our residents start the next stage in their lives while expanding the group's cash flow annuity streams.

On that note, I will now hand over to Von to talk you through our Lifestyle Development business.

[Yvonne Slater, executive]

Thanks, Justin, and good morning all. By way of introduction, my name is Von Slater, and I've worked with Ingenia 2 years. I have worked in the property and development space for over 15 years, the last 6 of which have been spent in the land lease sector.

Starting on Slide 14 with the financial results, a more than 30% increase in settlement volumes and increased home sale prices across the group was a key driver of EBIT growth over the half, with activity in the joint venture also contributing additional fees. As Justin noted, we achieved 176 settlements in the first half and to date, we have settled 211 homes and have 402 contracts and deposits on hand.

Our average sales price has risen 24% and reflects the diversity in our active projects. Whilst we have seen our average home sale margin slightly contract, this margin remains within our targeted range.

These results reflect what we are noticing on the ground, and turning to Slide 15, I will step you through what we're seeing. On our building sites, we have certainly seen notable improvements in construction. We completed 191 homes in the first half and our average build timeframe has reduced, now sitting at 22 weeks. The builder and trade landscape is not without its challenges, but this has certainly improved. Although construction cost escalation continues, the increase is at a much slower pace.

From a customer perspective, the current economic climate and macroeconomic conditions, including the high interest rates, have led to reduced consumer sentiment and cautious buyers. Our customers are still delaying their purchasing decisions and the extended time on market is impacting our settlement timing. This is a key focus, and to mitigate this, we have targeted incentives in place. However, pleasingly, we do continue to see ongoing demand for our communities and our inquiry has noticeably improved since returning in the new year. As noted, we have 402 contracts and deposits on hand.

We see benefit in holding completing stock on the ground, which allows our customers to see, touch and feel the product, and these ready-to-move homes are assisting with sales convergence in a market that is certainly concerned about builder stability. We are committed to aligning our inventory management with market demand and of the 49 Ingenia homes completed at December, to date, 33 of these have either sold or settled.

Turning now to Slide 16. In the first half, we achieved significant milestones that are key to us reaching our production, sales and settlement targets. These include the launch of new projects at Bargara and Fullerton Clove, Bargara which you can see on the slide there. First settlements at our Seachange Victoria Point project and multiple display openings across the portfolio. This is alongside the commencement of significant infrastructure works. All of these milestones not only enable our continued growth, but we know that they are a key driver of sales conversion and momentum for our customers.

As we move into the second half, these milestones continue with the opening of new clubhouses at 3 of our developing communities, further display home openings and the launch of the Morisset project, Archer's Run, a 606-home community in the Lake Macquarie area. This is supported a very, very busy event schedule designed to drive sales momentum and conversion rates.

Moving now to Slide 17. Our pipeline remains strong with over 5,900 new sites driving our growth. As Justin mentioned, we received 3 development approvals in the first half, and our portfolio is well-positioned to deliver settlements that align with our 3-year target. We have further development applications underway as we continue to unlock value and drive growth across the portfolio. Overall, our approach to development and site acquisition remains focused on diversifying our portfolio and maximizing value.

Thank you, and I will now hand over to Justin Blumfield to take us through residential communities.

[Justin Blumfield, executive]

Thanks, Von, and good morning, everyone. I'm Justin Blumfield, And for the past 3 years, I've led the operational management of Ingenia's residential communities portfolio, encompassing our lifestyle land lease, all age rental and gardens portfolios. Previously, I was in the listed REIT space for 14 years in leadership roles at the GPT Group and Vicinity Centres. Today, I'm pleased to be presenting strong first half results, which demonstrate the stability of Ingenia's underlying annuities.

I'll be starting on Slide 18. The Ingenia Lifestyle Rental segment, which is a combination of the Ingenia Lifestyle and all age rental portfolios delivered strong growth in the first half, with EBIT up 18%. The key driver of this growth was a 13% increase in revenue. attributed to CPI-linked rent increases, growing revenue from established home resales and the addition of 177 new rent-producing sites, being 143 in Ingenia Lifestyle home settlements and 34 new rental homes.

I'll now turn to Slide 19 more insights into the individual business unit results, starting with Ingenia Lifestyle. Ingenia's sizable land lease rental annuity continues to grow, with 143 new homes delivered by Yvonne's development team in the first half. The new rent increases -- the new rent from these homes, combined with a 9.6% weighted average rent increase across existing sites, was the foundation of strong EBIT growth. We have also experienced strong demand for established lifestyle homes across our growing portfolio, with 116 homes being resold by Ingenia in the first half. The combined sales commission and DMF revenue from these retailers delivered $3.6 million, supporting overall EBIT growth. Noting only our 3 Federation villages in Victoria have a DMF component to all their site agreements.

Ongoing rental affordability remains at the forefront of Ingenia Lifestyle's community living model. Thankfully, resident affordability in a time of rising living costs were supported by increases in government support payments. This was delivered through a 22% increase in the Commonwealth Government's rental assistance program and an annual pension increase of over 7%, both administered in calendar year '23. These strong first half results support Ingenia Lifestyle's ongoing market position as an attractive and affordable housing option for seniors living.

Turning now to Ingenia's all age rental portfolio on Slide 20. We, Ingenia's 10 all age rental communities continue to experience extremely high demand due to the well-publicized lack of affordable rental homes in Australia. At most of our rental communities, we have waitlists, and our newly built rental homes are being leased immediately upon completion. This tight rental environment has led to 9% weighted average rent increases and occupancy consistently above 99%. We continue to maximize the value of the all age rental portfolio with our ongoing site densification strategy. This added an additional 34 new homes in the past 6 months, with a further 18 new homes on track for delivery in the second half.

It is anticipated the strong housing demand we are experiencing at our out of Melbourne and Brisbane rental communities will continue. To capitalize on this opportunity, we have achieved council approvals to add over 110 new homes across this portfolio in future years.

Moving now to Ingenia Gardens on Slide 21. There was a 7% EBIT reduction in the Gardens business for the first half. This result was due to the divestment of 2 communities in November '22 and more recently, our 6 Western Australian communities in December '23. Overall, the business fundamentals on the remaining 19 Ingenia Gardens communities remain strong and stable. Unit occupancy was consistently above 95% and the pension increases in calendar year '23 delivered an increase in rental revenue.

Thank you. I'll now pass over to our Executive General Manager of Tourism, Matthew Young.

[Matthew Young, executive]

Thanks, Justin. And if we can move to Slide 22, please. Good morning. I'm Matt Young. I'm the Executive General Manager of Tourism for Ingenia and I am responsible for the holiday park and mixed-use park business. We're 30 years in hotels -- international hotels and 3 with Ingenia, I'm excited about our business and also the growth in the sector. I know some of you had the opportunity to stay in one of our parks during the summer break, and thank you for contributing to our positive half yearly results. As you can see from the slide, we have premier parks and locations along the eastern seaboard.

Now turning to Slide 23. Firstly, I'd like to highlight the continued growth in national domestic tourism year-on-year, which, coupled with our 12-month forward bookings surpassing last year's figures by 11%, instills ongoing confidence in the sector. This presents significant opportunity for short-lead bookings, maximizing rates and filling to periods by dynamic pricing strategies and targeted marketing.

In the first half of FY '24, we achieved 12% growth in revenue and an improvement in EBIT margin. This was primarily driven by a combined rate and occupancy growth along with effective cost control. In terms of cost management, the employment market has improved when compared to prior periods, and we have developed incentives to retain the casual workforce over peak periods. This has assisted with maintaining wage costs reducing over time and use of contractors. The strength of our 12-month forward bookings is evident in the loyalty of our guests, with rebookings accounting for 55% of all revenue, surpassing industry averages and instilling confidence in our outlook.

Now turning to Slide 24. During the first half of FY '24, we have prioritized increasing visibility to a wide range of potential guests, including leveraging nontraditional platforms like Airbnb for unique offerings such as our built-in precinct in Byron Bay. Utilizing alternative channels to reach guests has not only contributed to incremental revenue growth, but also allows us direct communication with customers for future bookings and promotional opportunities. Our strategic investment in marketing aims to drive more business directly through our channels with a longer-term goal of reducing distribution costs.

We have maintained our focus on site densification as evidenced at One Mile Beach. We've been tactical with One Mile Beach as it is a beachside location. And I'll share with you 1 component of the transformation. On average, an annual site generated $5,000 per year. Thirty one of these sites have been converted to tourism cabins, now yielding over $55,000 per year per site. Achieving this was possible through a relatively low capital investment of $120,000 per cabin, with revenue flowing at a margin of approximately 75%. This showcases the embedded value within our holiday assets.

Half year FY '24, we've delivered 43 additional cabins throughout the network. This strategic approach not only drives growth in tourism revenue, but also solidifies our position as a premier destination in the eastern seaboard.

You might have spotted us throughout the summer break, seen an Ingenia billboard, seen us online or actually heard us on the radio over summer. As we approach the conclusion of our inaugural summer marketing campaign, we've achieved record-breaking site visitation results, exceeding 460,000 website visits.

In conclusion, we anticipate a positive outlook as we navigate through the winter, historically known for softening in the southern parks, which is offset by solid holdings and an increasing influx of visitors to our parks in Northern New South Wales and Queensland. Our half yearly results demonstrate delivering value by achieving revenue and EBIT margin growth, all while maintaining a prominent position in the tourism market along the East Coast of Australia.

Thank you, and I'll now hand back to Justin Mitchell.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Great. Thanks, Matt, Von and Justin. Now in wrapping up, I will turn to guidance and the outlook.

I'm pleased to confirm that our guidance communicated at our full year results presentation is maintained. This is 10% to 15% growth in EBIT and underlying EPS of between $0.208 and $0.223 per security. This reflects a cautious outlook on the residential market more broadly. Timing of settlements remains the key variable to delivering earnings. Other considerations include the impact of asset disposals, a higher effective tax rate linked to our settlement profile, interest costs and a skew in expenses as a result of the timing of spend and investment, including marketing and support functions.

Looking forward, our business remains resilient, providing a diverse asset base and growing revenue streams. Ingenia continues to focus on sectors exposed to ongoing demand, seniors housing and domestic travel accommodation, while launching new developments and delivering settlements across the 15 communities under development. It is positioned to benefit from the improving housing market, addressing the demand for affordable housing and rental accommodation while offering an attractive lifestyle.

So that concludes the formal part of our presentation. I look forward to any questions that you may have and to catching up with many of you over the coming weeks.

I will now hand back to Kylie to start the Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Tom Bodor with UBS.

[Tom Bodor, analyst]

My question is probably best directed to Von. I was just interested in the development segment, how we should be thinking about the difference between the gross development margin and the net development margin? And just how that overhead should look over time? And when do you get to scale there?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

So Tom, maybe if I just start and Von can chime in. So it's Justin here. So obviously, the gross development margin is the margin relating purely to the, I guess, margin on our sale of home. So our revenue less cost of goods sold. That's the net margin that you're referring to, obviously, that includes all the overheads associated with that, such as salaries and wages. So the cost of running the division, including marketing, land tax, all those kind of things.

So I guess so far as taking the first part, like we continue to see -- I think we reported 46% in the first half. Obviously, as you know, that will depend somewhat on mix. But we -- looking forward, we can say that, that remains fairly stable over the balance of this year and looking into next. And as we've noted before, as we see an uplift in the number of settlements within our business, we've certainly invested upfront in our pipeline and, therefore, we'd expect to see an improving margin as we go forward.

[Tom Bodor, analyst]

Okay. That's great. But then you talk about higher marketing costs in the second half, for example, does that sort of gross to net then start to grow into 2 halves? And what about into '25 and beyond as you...

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. So that is purely related to the volume of leads on development. Like obviously, we have to market in advance of when we actually receive the revenue in. So we still expect that even with those that we'll continue to see an uplift just due to the scale. But obviously, that marketing cost will need to grow as well in order to deliver on our future pipeline.

[Tom Bodor, analyst]

Okay. So if I look at it at sort of around, call it, $18 million of difference between the gross and EBIT? Is that -- you're saying that all sort of scale up as volumes go up? Is that fair or is there a degree of fixed overhead in there that...

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

There's definitely -- let's clear like marketing is probably the key variable as well as like land tax, which we do expense directly. And obviously, as we get new developments, we have to start paying the tax. So the biggest cost in our business is salaries and wages. So that is very scalable. And that's why I think while we are -- we'll see an increase in marketing; certainly, we do believe that as we continue to settle more that we are able to see an improvement in margin.

[Tom Bodor, analyst]

Okay. That's really helpful. And then just maybe this is more for Justin, but just around the guidance, you sort of called out the variables being sort of first half '25, second half '24 settlements and where things fall. Is your base case essentially the low end and in your upside case if you get to more settlements the high end? Or is there a risk to the low end of the range of settlements push?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Look, what I would say is that settlement is no doubt the biggest driver of our guidance range. We think we're confident in, obviously, where we sit today. It really comes down to timing as to whether it's either 30th of June or falls into next year. But that is our biggest variable, coupled with a couple of the other things that I mentioned, such as the impact of some of our disposals, including obviously, WA. We've got a bit of a skewing cost included in these marketing costs that I referred to before. And also a little bit of moderation around timing in holidays, particularly in the second half, where Easter falls and the like. And I guess just assumptions around some of the DMF and refurbishments that obviously there's a bit of volatility and the timing of that also fluctuates. So we've taken a conservative lens on that as we sit here today.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Solomon Zhang with JPMorgan.

[Solomon Zhang, analyst]

First question from me was just on the, I guess, the cash flow from operations. It was a bit modest at $21.8 million. Could you just talk to what drove that softness, seems to be a bit of an entry build and sort of how you're managing -- you're looking at managing that into second half and beyond, please?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes, Solomon. Look, obviously, as we do every results, cash flow and capital management is something we focus on and it continues to be a focus. We've demonstrated through capital recycling that we do have a growing pipeline. In order to deliver more settlements, we need more inventory. And certainly, in this market, and Von alluded to this, it's good to be able to have inventory available for sale, particularly if we see an uptick in the residential market over the balance of this year and heading up into FY '25.

So I think we've got a pretty consistent level of inventory at 31 December compared to 6 months ago. And importantly, what I focus on is the allocations. Obviously, we had a significant amount of inventory on hand that was unallocated. I would be probably a little bit more nervous. But if we've got strong allocations, which we do, then that gives us confidence in our ability to deliver on settlements for the balance of this year and into next. But as I stated before, we have a targeted gearing range that is currently at 33%. We will manage to round that 35% depending on timing, and we continue to recycle capital to manage that, coupled with, I guess, the strong underlying cash flows from our lifestyle rental business that Justin referred to and also from our Holidays business as well.

[Solomon Zhang, analyst]

Great. And maybe just a follow-up to that. So do you think this sort of elevated inventory is more a function of current market dynamics, a bit of buy hesitancy? Or do you think the inventory will broadly scale with settlements as you ramp up the businesses from here?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Look, I would start by saying I don't think it is elevated. I think it's quite consistent with the level that we always hold. We -- yes, we always need to have a level of inventory on hand. I'd be -- we had this problem 12 months ago where we didn't have any inventory at all. So given the fact that we are now in market with 15 projects, it really will continue to elevate as that pipeline grows. So I don't think it's elevated. I think, Von, correct me, if I'm wrong, but we had probably 22 houses currently that are unallocated. So across our pipeline of 15 projects to have 22 unsold houses, I think, is actually quite a low number. And again, heading into 30th of June, you might see that a bit more elevated. But again, if we want to capitalize on any potential uplift in the market, then I think we need to have inventory available for sale.

[Solomon Zhang, analyst]

Yes, that makes sense. And maybe just a final one, just for Matt. Just starting to see a bit of rate moderation come through, but average occupancy ticking up. Could you just maybe just talk through how occupancy has trended through first half and how that drove you filling out the shoulders of those peak demand periods has succeeded throughout the period?

[Matthew Young, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Solomon. Look, one area that we've been particularly excited about is the -- you would have heard and read about, the growth in RV sales or caravan sales 18 months ago during COVID, so we're starting to see that now translate into occupancy. And that's coming through the year. Like I mentioned before, the southern states can be challenging during winter. So we do our best to attract a customer that's wanting that space and not to be staying during peak periods. And what we're seeing and, in particular, over the Christmas period, we saw very strong growth in rate, in particular, 26th of December through to the 2nd of January.

Occupancy during the shoulder periods, we continue to work on that. As I mentioned, we're investing in marketing, a lot more, you would have seen that through maybe some of the summer campaign activities that we had going. We've grown our guest database from 1.2 million to 1.4 million guests. So we continue to work with those customers and encouraging them to stay more and making sure that we've got offerings during those low trough periods to fill it out.

[Solomon Zhang, analyst]

Yes. And just in terms of, I guess, how large occupancy tends to trough in those sort of lower demand periods, could you just give us some numbers around that, if you got...

[Matthew Young, executive]

It is really -- sorry, it's really difficult because like North Queensland will be full during winter and in the southern states. Yes, so it's very hard to give like an average that would make any sense.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Suraj Nebhani with Citi.

[Suraj Nebhani, analyst]

Just firstly, on the rental growth, it was very strong at around 9.5%. I'm just interested to understand what's the benchmark over here? And how should we think about this going forward?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Can I just clarify -- it's Justin here. So Suraj, what is clarify the benchmark so far as expectations or full growth?

[Suraj Nebhani, analyst]

Yes, I think basically, so from what I understand, the CPI plus...

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes, correct. So the vast majority of our -- yes, so look, a fair trajectory is, obviously, our CPI has hopefully peaked. We'll start to see that 9% come off over time. But a large proportion of our portfolio is CPI plus, so we'll track ahead of CPI, I guess, is the trajectory. We obviously continue to see quite strong growth. Not all of our rents happen at one point. They happen throughout the year, so we get a bit of a blended rate. So we'll start. Obviously, that will flow on to the balance of this year and into next. But obviously, that is moderating.

[Suraj Nebhani, analyst]

And my second question is on the sales that I guess you and Von talked about earlier. How do you think the sales are running currently? Are they sort of in line with expectations? And what are the measures you think you need to do to ramp up sales? And what is the key driver in your perspective to ramp up sales?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. I might hand to Von to take you through that.

[Yvonne Slater, executive]

Suraj, look, we obviously have our projects at different stages, so we have some projects that have just launched and some that have been in market, in an established market for some time. So we're seeing, I guess, different sales rates across the spread. The uptick in inquiry in the new year that I mentioned is obviously pleasing, but we know that, that inquiry is obviously the start of the journey. The 402 contracts and deposits on hand is obviously what's leading us to be able to have better visibility and forecast on our settlement, but that even without timing risk.

One of the key risks that we talk about is our customer's ability to sell their own home and steadily in our community and that's something that we're watching really closely. We have some incentives in place in targeted areas where we're seeing this is a larger risk, and that's what we're working through. But where we sit today, we're comfortable with the settlement -- sorry, with the sales and deposits we have on hand in relation to our guidance.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. I think the only thing I'd add to that is, obviously, traditionally, we always had a skew to the second half, and we expect that probably just continue as we come out of a spring campaign, launching new products and all those new developments in market that we expect to see, depending on timing a greater swing or skew to the second half.

[Suraj Nebhani, analyst]

Understood. And the final one is on the cost. You obviously called out higher cost in second half '24. Can you put some numbers around that, if possible and which segment it sits in?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Look, it's probably too detailed for this call. I'm happy to take that offline with you in our individual briefings. But look, I think, around corporate costs, which are obviously is where you can see that in our sales. I think I've previously guided that we see an uplift and that's around -- I think I guided to around that $25 million to $26 million. There's probably a little bit of uplift just to a couple of one-off or one-offs costs associated in the second half. And marketing, again, depending on the settlement profile, we'll see an uplift as well as we've certainly held back a little bit in the first half around our investment in some of our technology spend, particularly around looking at a new CRM system and the costs associated with that, that will start to come through.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Ben Brayshaw with Barrenjoey.

[Benjamin Brayshaw, analyst]

Justin, I was wondering if you could discuss the profitability of the Sun joint venture. I appreciate you provided some key performance metrics in the annexures. And just as part of that, if you could touch on as well, the share of loss from the JV? Is that what is being reflected in INA's as funds from operations? Or should we be focusing on the joint venture operating profit, please?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Ben. Good question. So let me take the 2 component parts. Look, we do give specific disclosures in the report. And you can see from the accounts, how much we derive so far as the underlying fees that we receive from that joint venture. In relation to the fair value, obviously, similar to the head stock, a lot of the revaluation that you see coming through and a large driver of that loss is to do with fair value adjustments. So the underlying profit or a similar measure to what we have, which is effectively the home settlements coming through is recognized in our underlying profit, and any fair value adjustments are excluded.

[Benjamin Brayshaw, analyst]

So just to clarify, should we be using the $7.9 million as the fully consolidated share of operating profit and, obviously, INA's economic interest in that?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. So that's the statutory number, which includes those fair value losses that I mentioned before. I think in the accounts, you will see the specific amount that is included to the underlying operating earnings of the joint venture.

[Benjamin Brayshaw, analyst]

And what is that specific number? Do you have that at hand, please?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Can I come back to you? I don't have enough -- yes, I think it's around the $3 million to $4 million mark.

[Benjamin Brayshaw, analyst]

Okay. And just secondly, on Lifestyle Rental, the EBIT margin for this half is down a little bit on the PCP, but overall, the revenue is up by in the order of, I guess, what appears to be about 13%. I was wondering if you could just touch on some of the factors that it may have been reflected in the lower margin for this period. And would you anticipate that, that margin might pick up again in the second half?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. Ben, just to clarify, obviously, that margin, I think, you're referring to what was in the previous year's probably financial disclosure, which was an adjusted margin, which stripped out new communities, et cetera. Me coming on board, I adjusted that just to reflect what is our underlying like our margin on face value. And we've seen that actually on a like-for-like basis increase in the period, as alluded to in the presentation. But again, happy to take you through that in more detail, if required, but we have seen an uplift in our margin. And obviously, as that portfolio grows similar to development, we would expect to see a continuing margin improvement as we get scale.

[Benjamin Brayshaw, analyst]

So just on a comparable basis then, do you have the restated margin was for the prior period?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. It's in the presentation pack. On Page 16 and it shows you that the margin -- EBIT margin went from 43.6% up to 45.9%. Page 18, sorry, That's my eyesight.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

Your next question comes from Murray Connellan with Moelis Australia.

[Murray Connellan, analyst]

Justin and team, I was wondering whether you could touch around your comfort levels on the balance sheet at the moment, please? And just your strategic thinking around capital management more broadly. How much larger would you expect the development pipeline to get in the medium term? And where do you see the funding sources?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Murray. Good question though. As I alluded to before, capital management, at the forefront of our thinking, we obviously have a development pipeline to deliver on and obviously deliver houses and settlements off the back of that. So we have demonstrated over a period of time, our ability to recycle capital, and we continue to identify opportunities within our portfolio where we see higher and better use to reallocate that capital and selectively reinvest, but our core focus remains on building out our 5,900 lots that we have in our pipeline and deliver on that. I think, as we invest, we obviously get more value and, obviously, our ability to draw more capital.

Like I think we continue to maintain that prudent approach. We're at 33%. Our leverage, as you know, our covenants are 55% and we have available capacity to continue to spend and recycle through the settlement of homes. I guess, coupled with strong underlying performance and reliable cash flows not only from our Holidays business but from our growing Lifestyle Rentals business as well.

[Murray Connellan, analyst]

And then just on the land that was acquired during the half. I'm just wondering whether you can unpack where that incremental pipeline has come from? And I guess, what you're spending on land on a per-site basis at the moment, please?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Murray, just to clarify, I think we're currently investigating. Von, with Sun, did you want to talk to that?

[Yvonne Slater, executive]

Yes. So we haven't acquired that particular site as yet, we've got it under option. And to your question on pricing, generally, the indication of what we're prepared to pay is circa 10% of the price that we can sell the home for. So there's a detailed process that we go through at the time of due diligence to look at the target market, [indiscernible] market to determine the price. But as a general rule of thumb, it's about 10% of what we target as the home price to be that gives you -- hopefully, that gives you an indication.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. And Murray, just expanding on that, like, that goes to, I guess, our previous comments around trying to be capital efficient in the way that we structure these deals going forward. We're not we're obviously derisking it through going through subject to DA. We go through all that, so we understand and the key risks and how we will mitigate that and at the same time being capital light in how we've outlaid capital.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Rushil Paiva with Ord Minnett.

[Rushil Paiva, analyst]

Just a couple on development, if you don't mind. Firstly, the average home settlement price was quite strong due to the mix impact. I'm just keen to get your thoughts on what your outlook is for the remainder of FY '24 and FY '25 on the average home selling price.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. Von, do you want to maybe start on that?

[Yvonne Slater, executive]

Yes. So the mix, as you said, has contributed to that. We don't see any material movement to that number leading into the second half, albeit the -- I guess, the skew to the second half that Justin mentioned earlier in terms of volume.

[Rushil Paiva, analyst]

Understood. And just regarding that second half skew, I mean, in prior -- at the FY '23 results, I know management commented on an expectation or a base pace of the 35%-65% split first half versus second half settlements. Is that still your base case or has anything changed on that front?

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Look, we obviously haven't given specific guidance around settlements. Like as I said, there is a skew, I wouldn't probably predict that it's going to be that size of swing.

[Rushil Paiva, analyst]

Sure. No problem. Just one final question, it's on the holidays business. The margin there, I thought the margin outcome was quite strong and you've talked about cost control in the half. In prior periods, going back a couple of years, the EBIT margin when the Holidays business has pushed close to 40% or thereabout, so just keen to get your thoughts on what you think of the outlook for the remainder of FY '24 and again into FY '25 and beyond just from a margin perspective within the Holidays business.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. Maybe if I take that one. Rushil, look, I think we can see margin being maintained where it is. It will depend on the allocation of some of those support unit costs in the second half. And as Matt alluded to, obviously, some of the quieter months in the southern states that we operate. We are also investing in marketing to try and get that uplift and retention of our customers introduce new as well as retained. So we'll continue to see an investment in that. I don't know if you've got anything else to add.

[Matthew Young, executive]

Yes. Look, probably one thing just to call out in the southern states and what we do have down there to make sure that we get through them is, we've got annual revenue or annuals revenue, which I mentioned in the One Mile example before. So that helps kind of flatten out the month. We do receive revenue while occupancies, our short-term occupancies bounce around a bit. We've got stable income coming through annuals with over 1,300 sites in Southern New South Wales and Victoria.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Yes. So I mean to say -- sorry, Rushil, the only thing I would add to that is just remember that we did have 2 assets disposed of as well that will obviously impact on the second half performance.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Mitchell for closing remarks.

[Justin Mitchell, executive]

Great. Thank you, Kylie. Well, thank you, everyone, again for dialing in today. It was great to see everyone online, and thank you for your questions. And as I noted, on behalf of the management team, thank you for your continued interest in Ingenia Group. We look forward to catching up with you over the coming weeks. Thank you.

[Operator]

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.