NZ’s largest retirement village and care operator, Ryman, has revealed in their annual report that sales of retirement units in its first Australian village have been the fastest they have ever experienced.

So now they want five Australian villages open and trading by 2020, just under five years from now.

This means they need to acquire three sites this year to add to the Brandon Park site they bought last May for $47.5 million, paying a record $854 per square metre. They have already closely inspected two.

The first Melbourne village, called Weary Dunlop, opened sales last May and now only has 42 units left out of 257 ILUs and serviced apartments, or 16%.

Ryman's Group Sales Manager, Debbie McClure (pictured), is very focused on turnover. In December she had just 63 village resale units available across their entire portfolio, or one month’s stock. She says this is higher than they would like. Here in Australia 4 to 6 months stock is not uncommon.

Over the 12 months they also increased prices 6%across their NZ portfolio. They say they review prices at least six monthly. At Weary Dunlop townhouses were first sold at $400,000 – a slight discount to enter the market – but are now selling at $570-$580,000, a 43% increase in 12 months. Ryman takes all the capital gain.

Also in the annual report they feature the fact that none of the Australia major village operators have residential care in their product mix while for Ryman it’s an essential feature in their success; and consequently they only market to people aged 75+.

On completion Weary Dunlop the ratio is 206 units plus 51 serviced apartments to 60 care beds.
(Aveo and Stockland are both pursuing co-located care but not on this scale and over an extended number of years).

Serviced apartments are also vital to Ryman's mix. Across their portfolio they have 3,300 ILUs and 1,500 serviced apartments.

For the 2014/15 year their revenue profit was $136 million, from 30 villages. This compares to say RetireAustralia with approximately 28 villages with a revenue profit of approximatley $40 million.

Ryman of course has grown organically, so they have shaped their product as they have expanded. They proudly state that they raised $25 million at their stock exchange listing in 1999 and have had no further capital injection since. Profit growth and bank finance has funded their expansion.

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