Lifestyle village FY21 results: Lifestyle Communities, Ingenia, Aspen

• Lifestyle Communities net profit up 113% to $91.1M
• Ingenia net profit up 131% to $72.8M
• Aspen operating profit up 36% to $9M

As the population ages, lifestyle communities continue to gain traction.

While Ingenia and Aspen have lifestyle communities in their portfolios, they also include holiday parks and similar.

Lifestyle Communities (ASX: LIC)

LIC was hit hard by Covid, particularly as a Victorian business enduring months of lockdown.

Despite that, the company still turned a profit after tax of $91.1 million, underpinned by a $76 million post-tax non-cash uplift in the value of the company’s property portfolio.

“The 2021 financial year was another challenging one for the business with Covid-19 lockdowns in force for almost half the year. These lockdowns have had a significant impact on consumer confidence particularly amongst our target customer base which has negatively affected enquiries, lead times, and subsequent sales,” said LIC MD James Kelly.

“To deliver new home settlements consistent with last year in this environment was a solid achievement. After the major lockdown from July 2020 to October 2020, the team responded with real determination, achieving 255 new home settlements.”

Ingenia (ASX: INA)

The company has benefitted from the large demands in the residential real estate market, particularly buoyed by the mass migration to regional Australia.

“Demand drivers remain strong across the industry, and if anything, have improved. An ageing population, housing affordability issues and the appeal of community living post COVID-19 isolation will continue to make lngenia’s communities an attractive proposition,” said Ingenia CEO, Simon Owen.

Aspen Group (ASX: APZ)

The company’s portfolio is split 57% park communities, 22% residential and 21% retirement communities.

Aspen has seen the benefit of “… a shift in consumer preference for ‘lifestyle’ locations, and pent up demand for lower cost housing”. The company also noted they benefitted from low interest rates and increased house prices which drove more customers to seek Aspen products.

The holiday park products have also been impacted by lockdowns and border closures, but a pivot seems to have borne fruit.

Aspen said at the start of the pandemic, it “quickly moved to leasing our traditional tourist cabins for longer stay residential purposes – we have subsequently pivoted between short stay and longer stay leasing depending on the season and the ever-changing lockdown status”.

While the strategy resulted in lower average rates, it achieved higher occupancy and total revenue. Aspen also noted that the cost of servicing longer stay residents is lower than for short stay, hence total net operating income also increased.