This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AFFORDABLE accommodation operator Lifestyle Communities has weathered turbulent year to register an increase in new home settlements and a 69% uplift in after-tax profit to $61.4 million.
Shareholders will receive a fully franked dividend of 6.0c per share, taking the total dividend for the year to 10.5c per share, an increase of 31%.
There were 401 new homes settled in FY22, up from 255, while homes under management increased to 3,193. That increase boosted annuity income by 25% to $40.6 million.
It has a further 2,150-plus home sites in its development pipeline following the acquisition of four sites that it said would underpin growth for the next three to five years.
“To say this year was an unusual one for the business is an understatement,” managing director James Kelly said.
“Lockdowns for the first four months of the year were followed by a large upswing in demand through the Christmas/New Year period as pent-up demand and a ‘life is short’ sentiment coming out of lockdown saw strong sales and increasing desire to free up equity through downsizing,” he added.
“More recently we have seen inflationary pressures through supply chain challenges and rising interest rates. As a business, we took decisions to build latency into our delivery timeframes, ensuring that we had sufficient stock to meet pre-sales commitments as we emerged from the pandemic shutdowns.”
“We have the capacity to secure three new sites per year and we continue to investigate further land acquisition opportunities in Melbourne’s key growth corridors.”
He said supply chain challenges are expected to persist in the near-term. FY23 settlements are expected to be consistent with FY22 but the launch of the new seven projects during the year will see a step up in settlements in FY24 and FY25 as new projects come online at Woodlea, Phillip Island, St Leonards, Clyde, Bellarine, Pakenham, Merrifield and Ocean Grove.
