Lifestyle Communities Limited (LIC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Lifestyle Communities, LIC, Half Year Results Teleconference. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over the conference to Mr. James Kelly, Managing Director. Please go ahead.

Thank you. And also, thank you for joining us on this call about the half year results for Lifestyle Communities. We always appreciate that. Firstly, Darren and I just feel so proud of our team in being able to deliver such a great set of results, considering the trading conditions that we experienced in the first half of this financial year. When you think about it, Melbourne was actually locked down for nearly 4 of the 6 months of the half, and yet we still managed to deliver 168 new sales, 73 resales and 166 settlements. We have 258 new home settlements in the bag going into the second half, and the strong inquiry that we experienced leading up to Christmas has set us up really well for new sales this year. Over this time, both the marketing and sales teams used a lot of muscle memory from the past 5 lockdowns, we were getting [ pre-practice ] out in Melbourne, to ensure that we continue to drive inquiries and sales, albeit at a slightly reduced level. The same on the projects team. We were able to work with Todd Devine Homes, who's our single builder, to ensure that we had minimal disruption to our supply chain, which enabled us to continue to sell homes as per program. This continues to frank Lifestyle's strategy of building relationships with 1 or 2 key suppliers across all our activities. We also continue to pay them on a 7-day payment cycle. And then to be able to lean into this relationship, we need to ensure that we get preferential treatment on key supply chain issues. What I'm most proud about is the team that through these tough times, we've been able to keep reimagining the business across all facets of what we do. This ability to maintain our curiosity and to challenge the status quo has meant that we can keep exceeding customer expectations on what we offer as well as drive sales and settlements. So just to call out a few of these from a very long list. The marketing team, or what I call our disruptor neighbors, have started to subtly reposition our brand so that it better engages with what they want and also the aspirations of the baby boomer and use the tone of voice, a quirk, that not only differentiates us but also positions us with a younger customer that we are starting to meet more of. We also launched a new website, and the digital strategy has increased both the number and quality of digital leads as well as conversions. Our sales team has not only been looking at our customer touch points to increase engagement but has also reimagined how we launch and drive sales in new projects. This can be very much seen through the way the Meridian project has performed, and we are further evolving this strategy as we look at the 5 project launches that we have coming over the next 18 months. It's a really exciting change to the way we're thinking. And it's certainly bearing significant dividends, which is great. Our projects team has continued to reimagine both the style and configuration of our homes as well as our club houses and facilities. And what we're proposing to build at Meridian, Woodlea, Cowes and beyond takes our offer to another level, particularly with the new rental housing product that we haven't built before. Also, the work that we continue to do with our electrical micro grids and our new projects continues. And we're also really excited by what new technologies may bring to further reduce the cost of power that we can pass on to our homeowners. Our home experience team worked really hard through the latest lockdown, #6. We've seen them provide great service to our homeowners as well as maintain our communities to their normal high standards. We also continued with the refurbishment program for all the communities, which is part of a 30-year plan that we've mapped out to ensure that they present, as always, the highest standard. We also launched [ Project Blue Sky ], which is reimagining many of our homeowner touch points in the lived experience as well as bringing some new initiatives to further enhance a homeowner's experience of living in a community. This is a really, really exciting initiative and something I'm looking forward to really evolving -- seeing it really evolve over the next 3 to 6 months. Finally, we've successfully implemented an SAP across the business, and it went live on the 1st of January. Darren and his team did a fantastic job of bringing that into place at a pretty short time frame, and that's really going to enhance the back-end systems in the business. We're also implementing a Salesforce system that will also go live in this half. There's a really cutting-edge version that will not only super drive our CRM system but also introduce a one-stop shop homeowner portal to enhance the homeowner experience as well as increase the ease of living in a Lifestyle Community. This has all been achieved by the extraordinary customer-centric team at Lifestyle that we have organically grown and nurtured over a very long period of time. More and more, we recruit for culture and train for skill, and this is also paying dividends in both customer service delivery and driving referrals. So if you watch our new Our Story video on the website, it's an ode to the baby boomer, which is our customer. And the last line of this video, and you must watch it, is actually the baby boomer's war cry, which is, "We are the generation of change, and we are not done yet." I feel very much the same about Lifestyle in that we've just got so much more to do and so much more opportunity and so many emerging opportunities, it just makes me look so forward to a fantastic year ahead. So without further ado, I'd like to pass over to Darren now to take us through some more of the financials about this half year result. Thanks, Darren.

Thanks, James. I echo your excitement about the next 12 months. It's a great time for the business, lots of good things going on and great to be back out there face-to-face, meeting with customers again and looking forward to a big year ahead. So on the P&L, we had continued growth in the portfolio, which is the primary driver of our results with 166 settlements in this period compared to 88 in the prior year. Now obviously, both periods are affected by lockdown, but this just shows the different approach as COVID has become more normalized, and we might have to sort of adapt the business to deal with it. The increased portfolio flowed through to higher operating results, particularly in the community operations. And also, we're seeing an increasing number of resales attracting a deferred management fee. That's primarily due to the size of the portfolio and also an increasing number of communities that are now open and trading and have homes available for sale. As we mentioned, we did see some inflationary pressures in the construction industry, particularly around timber and steel. But with a very strong property market, particularly in Victoria at the moment, we were able to manage the cost of those increases. And in many cases, because of the pricing our homes on a cash cost recovery model, our homes have actually become relatively cheaper to the median house price, which is a great outcome and should drive strong sales in the future. We're pleased to see an increase in the deferred management fee come through, driven by those higher number of resales. We're also pleased to see our homeowners achieving strong house price growth in the resale market. Corporate overheads have increased. There's 2 main drivers of this. One was increased insurance premiums, particularly in the D&O market as our market cap has increased. And we've seen an increase in the accounting cost of the employee share scheme, primarily driven by some share price growth and also some tweaks to the structure of that scheme going forward. We expect the overhead cost to stabilize in the second half, if not come down slightly. On the balance sheet, we made some deliberate decisions to increase our stock levels during the lockdown, and this sort of had 3 main benefits. It enabled us to have finished homes ready to sell in the lockdown period end. It assisted us to manage some of the supply chain challenges and face forward orders in advance, which allowed us to manage some of those blips in the supply chain. And it kept all of our trades engaged, which was a really key part of managing the business during those difficult lockdown months. This saw us well placed to service customers as we emerge from the lockdown with homes ready to sell and importantly, certainty around availability dates when the homes will be finished, which is something that's really important to our customers. We settled on a number of land parcels during the period, which were already in the pipeline as well as completing an opportunistic purchase of a site at Phillip Island, which we're really excited about. It was a site that came to us at short notice, and we were able to complete quickly. And having the headroom available in our debt facility to complete that transaction meant we were able to secure that site at short notice. We're very excited to bring that Lifestyle Community to life at a very iconic location in Victoria. Both the increased inventory levels and those land settlements and the addition of the Phillip Island site pushed our debt levels higher and obviously led to an increase in gearing, but we should see this stabilize over the next 6 months. We finalized the extension of our debt facility in August. And once again, I'd like to thank our lenders, the NAB, HSBC and CBA for their continued support. The existing facility sees us well funded to continue our development pipeline and look for future land acquisitions, which is exciting. On the cash flow, you can see the increased inventory levels and land settlements flowing through. And I'd encourage everyone to look at Slide 28 of our investor presentation, which has a breakdown of the cash flows by property. Now that we're through the peak construction phase at a number of projects, we should see operating cash flow turn positive over the next 6 months. Finally, I'd just like to put in a shameless plug to my team. We have worked enormously hard over the last 6 months to implement this new system. We're very excited to embed the SAP system into the business, and it will be a core plank of our digital transformation and an important step to support the business as we continue to grow. Thanks, James.

Fantastic. Thanks, Darren. I think one of the most exciting slides in the pack is the sales slide that shows how sales have been going over the last -- or really, there's one that shows how sales have gone from the get-go of each project. And it's just so good to see projects like Woodlea and St Leonards have made -- are all performing so well and coming out of the blocks like they are. Love the verticality of some of those lines, which is really exciting. Deanside, Wollert, they have been probably the most COVID impacted due to their location, the north of Melbourne, but it's really exciting now to start to see those come back together as the sort of COVID cloud starts to lift, which is great. So without further ado, we'd love now to pass to any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Ben Brayshaw from Barrenjoey.

James and Darren, I was wondering if you could discuss the overall trajectory of the gearing ratio just over the next 6 months. You mentioned it was expected to stabilize. I'd just be interested in any color or visibility you could provide on the underlying key drivers in relation to, say, working capital, the overall, I suppose, capital requirements of higher production. And when the cash flow comes in, how does that all interplay with the amount of debt that you have outstanding?

Good question, Ben. Thanks for dialing in. Yes, we've definitely seen the gearing push higher than traditional levels. We are sort of through a peak construction period, particularly at Mount Duneed, Wollert, Deanside. We now see those projects sort of move into their cash recovery phase. So subject to settlements, obviously, given we're a capital recycling business, we should see those projects move into sort of a cash recovery mode over the next little while. With the Phillip Island site, it's a little unusual for us. Typically, we like to put a deposit down on at least 12 months' terms while we get all the planning done. But that site was a unique opportunity, and it was a sort of buy now or miss it opportunity. So that sort of gave us the impetus to sort of soak up that site, and that did push the gearing a little bit higher. But as settlements come through over the second half, as I said earlier, we're expecting that gearing to stabilize a little bit and hold at those levels.

Okay. And is it your objective to manage the gearing down from 40%? Or do you see 40% as essentially where the vehicle will be as you continue to ramp up production into the high settlement activity?

It will move around a little bit, to be honest, Ben, with settlements. Obviously, we're a capital recycling business model and depending on project status and settlements. But certainly, we don't -- we won't be pushing it substantially higher than where it is now. But it may come down a little bit at times and push up a little bit at times. But largely, we see it sort of sitting around those levels.

Great. And you mentioned, I think you made the comment, Darren, that the presale price had declined relative to the local median house price. So there was a real value proposition emerging in some of the active projects you have now. Where do you currently sit in terms of those sites that are in presales and the relationship to median house price?

Yes. So typically, when we buy a site, Ben, we look to be sort of around that 75% to 80% of the median house price. We have seen that push down towards the 70%. And in some cases, St Leonards, as an example, we're in the high 60s at the moment. So because we don't chase house prices up with the market, we're happy with our pricing model sitting where it sits. And as we become relatively cheaper, that drives the speed of sales and delivers a really good value proposition for the customer. So that's the model we've employed since Dawson. We're sort of holding through those principles, resisting the urge to raise prices with the market, price them low and watch them go. And that should really drive speed and allow us to get through these projects quickly.

It's also been -- it re-leans into referral because our customers -- once we return to -- and the market then sets the pricing well. And when we set the pricing, our customers see big uplifts when homes are resold. And so it really helps drive referral around, wow, there really is a value proposition at Lifestyle.

Just a couple of other questions, if I may. And James, you mentioned earlier you touched on the suppliers and the relationships you have. Could you just talk through what are the implications of higher construction costs for LIC's active projects? What are you seeing insofar as construction cost inflation come through? And secondly, do you have the ability to pass on all of the higher construction costs in the end values?

Yes. Absolutely. So we basically run a quarterly project control group program on each project. And one of the leadership team chairs that. And the real purpose of that is to look at where a project is currently tracking both cost-wise and sales-wise and then make any adjustments that we need to ensure that we meet our target of making no cash profit, which sounds always strange when you say it. But so yes, we do. If we're seeing increased costs coming through construction, what we do is just keep leaning into -- we basically put out sales prices up about 1% a quarter. And at the moment, that 1% a quarter is pretty much handling any cost increases. And we've always actually put our projects up at better rates. That does help sales by putting prices up slightly so people fear -- get FOMO a little bit and they want to make a decision more quickly. So that's been pretty much accommodating the cost increases that we have seen come through. On the supply chain, yes, we do get really good preferential treatments through Todd Devine Homes because we do, do large volumes with one builder. So I know the truss suppliers cut their customer base down from some enormous number just to 4 companies only. And they're the ones that always paid them, the ones that always can guarantee work. So yes, we lean into those relationships pretty heavily.

And so how confident are you just in terms of continuity of supply, building materials and/or labor over the next 6 to 12 months, just in the context of some of the, I suppose, the bottlenecks that we're seeing in the industry?

Look, yes, certainly, our access to the Todd Devine Homes is giving us no cause for concern. I think you're going to start seeing the construction industry start to come off a little bit in Victoria as the heat comes off after the HomeBuilder's Grant. So -- but yes, there's certainly no cause. Our labor supply is never an issue because we so -- effectively, we build on-site like a manufacturing business. Todd Devine can keep his trades on site, and it's a pretty good deal for the trades because they get paid on a piece rate. So if they put a frame up, they get $1,200. And then if you just move to the next asset, you get $1,200; next asset, $1,200. So they don't need to drive all around Melbourne for work. They just go to one site, get paid, go home. So we've sort of avoided a lot of the big price rises around. We don't do brick. Brick -- the brickies are one of the worst movers when there's supply and demand and labor costs. So we do avoid some of the more tricky trades. We don't have concreters, which is another one that shifts quite dramatically when there's a lot of work around. So yes -- so it's -- and Todd obviously works with those trades pretty closely. And it's kind of in return for sort of guaranteed work. They sort of -- that are pushed too hard. So on the labor side, that's never really been a concern for us then. On the supply side, yes, we've been -- in a price sense, probably haven't been as bad off as some. But we have had to pass some of that through in sale price increases. But again, when we -- our percentages are so far below the median, we're not concerned about passing those through because we've still got an incredibly affordable product.

Your next question comes from Andy McFarlane from Jarden Australia.

Just a couple of questions for me. Just in terms of the Tyabb, I just saw it's been removed from the pack [ in the current ] period, the detail on the back, obviously, being the VCAT. Is that the case that the project is not one you have and you're taking some costs on but one that you're able to acquire in the end?

Yes. That's correct, Andy. We only ever had that on option. So it was always -- we -- that was 100% subject to getting a planning permit. And it was a walk-away deal. So it was definitely worth running because we've had 2 other communities built on low-density res land around Melbourne. And this one, it just didn't go our way at VCAT, which is unfortunate. So yes, we walked away, but we much replaced it with Cowes pretty much straightaway. So it didn't disrupt our forward pipeline.

Understood. So I guess [indiscernible] the settlement target does -- how, I guess, thinking about -- you've obviously reiterated the target for 1,100 to 1,300 on 3 years. Is there any change to the thinking there? Or how should we be thinking about that?

No. We're still definitely reconfirming our 1,100 to 1,300 target, yes.

Got it. Just one last one for me. Just in terms of referrals, you typically -- or you had in the past sort of put out the number that you have been receiving has been, I think, around the 42% [indiscernible]. How is it sort tracking at the moment for the business?

Yes. Look, on the way up. Most of our referral comes from the lived experience. And yes, we run amazing homeowner events. We do autumn sports carnivals. We do an amazing winter event, Lifestyle has Talent or art shows, blah, blah, blah. And then we do a big spring carnival, sporting carnival, intercommunity, where we have over 1,000 people participate sometimes. We have [indiscernible] with that. So it's actually knocked our referral back a bit. All communities as a referral on resale is actually really high. We're talking 60%, 65% in some cases. It's just on the newer communities. Plus we've got this sort of -- it depends a bit where you're building. Like Deanside is on its own, so there's not many other referring communities to it. So we're kind of mix/match where -- if we're delivering in the Southeast every day, we'd have much higher referral because there are a lot of other referring committees. So it's a bit also influenced by where we're building. But I think when we're back driving home and experience and doing all the things that we normally do in a community, we'll see that lift up again. It used to be -- traveled about 50%, 55%. It's dropped a bit over the last 2 years with not only the location of our projects but also just this whole COVID cloud. And then yes, hopefully, you'll see that -- we're already starting to see that increase.

Your next question comes from Nick Maclean from Surrey Asset Management.

Firstly, thanks for you answering the DMF income. Given -- so if we look long term in terms of our investments, given your ongoing growth and particularly where you've started, that DMF income is going to build up quite nicely. What do you think that would be in 10 years, firstly? And I know it's been a hypothetical. But what do you think it will be as a percentage of total revenue in 10 years?

That's a really tricky question to answer. It's funny, I'm laughing because the DMF is just the hardest number to predict. I mean, ultimately, there are so many moving parts there. I think without being too flippant about it, natural growth of the portfolio, I would say, would be substantially higher than what it is today. But in terms of putting a specific number on it, yes, I'll have to take that away, Nick, to be honest. I can't really put an answer on that.

I didn't want specifics. But obviously, it's going to grow, right? It's going to be...

100%, yes. The interesting -- Nick, the other interesting thing we're starting to see post-COVID is this -- we're seeing [ equity ] is becoming a bit more of a stepping stone rather than a final destination. And people have downsized or looking to downsize again to put out more equity so that they'll tick off their bucket list that they might have been robbed 2 years of achieving. So yes, it's an interesting time. 50% of our homeowners move out for nonhealth or death reasons. So -- and we're seeing that very much pushing more now towards people downsizing to pay out more equity. So yes, I think it's just an interesting -- as Darren, it's the hardest thing to predict. But I mean, it will definitely be substantially more than what is today. That's a fact, yes.

Okay. So the -- without making light of the situation, so it wasn't COVID driven, the...

No. That's right. It's interesting, Nick. We track the reasons for moving out every time. And it's been -- for the last little while since I've been monitoring, it's been pretty consistent. So we sort of get 50% move out for health or death reasons, and 50% move out for nonhealth or death reasons. And then when you drill into the nonhealth or death reasons, there's a myriad within that. So we're still relatively small in terms of the overall number of resales in the history of the business. But we do track that data, and we will continue to look at it as it moves over time. But certainly, nothing driven by COVID.

No. No, not at all. No, definitely not.

Okay. And then one more again on the sort of -- on [ sites ]. So if you could wave your magic wand, how many sites that are out there that you could buy at a good price? Obviously, it's a magic wand, so it's [indiscernible].

So we've been doing this for 19 years now, and there's always sites out there that we can buy. Melbourne grows on multi-corridors. We're geared to buy 2 or 3 sites a year. So we're always -- of the 25 sites we've bought, we're -- only 2 have been bought on market, 23 off market. So yes, we're always got sights in our sites in the gun barrel in terms of what we're looking at. So yes, we never really have to wave the magic wand because it's -- this land is always there when we need it.

Your next question comes from Aaron Muller from Canaccord Genuity.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, Aaron.

Yes, Aaron.

Okay. Well, just following up from Nick's question at the end there. I'd be interested just to get your view, James, just for Mirvac announcing they're moving land lease communities and how that might sort of impact your ability to buy land?

Mirvac's got a pretty large land bank themselves. So -- and they're not necessarily talking about buying land, from what I could read or understand. So yes, it's just another competitor, which we welcome. If they can help us market to disrupt the 93% who don't currently downsize, happy days. So -- and also, they are a really good operator. I really rate Mirvac. I think they've got a really good culture and a really good sort of customer centricity. So I think they'll bring value to the industry in Victoria, which is great.

Yes. Okay. That's good. And just on home sales, you've obviously come into this half with that 252 homes sold, awaiting settlement. Could you maybe comment on the number of those settlements that have been booked? And also, by the 30th of June, how many homes do you think would be available for sale from a construction standpoint?

Yes. We don't normally disclose...

Available for settlement, I should say.

Yes. So we don't normally disclose the bookings, Aaron. But ultimately, we're just sort of working our way through our process as we normally do. Homeowners choose the booking date. We don't sort of try and wedge them into financial years or incentivize them in any way. So really, where we sort of work through the process is try and create a bit of FOMO about, "You've made the decision to move into Lifestyle, just get on with it." We bring people into the facilities with access to clubhouses and sporting facilities, et cetera, as soon as they pay their deposit. So that's a way of sort of embedding them into the community as early as possible. And then we just work them through their trial process. So people get their home on the market. They've got quite a wide window to settle. So it's right that not all of those 252 presales will settle within the year, but that's the same as any other year really. We don't have any problems with delivery of homes. As I mentioned earlier, this sort of decision to build ahead of the curve a little bit has meant that we've been able to give homeowners great certainty about when their homes will be finished and available to settle. So really, we're just kind of in the hands of the homeowners, to be honest, as to when they want to move in.

Yes. Okay. And then just for my last question, just on resales. So obviously, the first half was really strong. How is the second half shaping up? Maybe comment on how many homes -- resale homes have been sold awaiting settlement or how many are in the market at the moment.

Yes. The resales has been going really well. We've seen the ready-to-move market come back quite strongly out of lockdown. And we saw a little bit last year a similar thing. It's -- with the finished communities, it's very easy to see what you're getting. It's a finished product. The gardens are much more [ busier ]. So it's quite a different offering to some of the new developments. And we've seen demand, quite strong. So as it stands today, we've only got 22 homes on the market, which is, in my time, that's as low as it's ever been. So we're selling through the stock as quick as we can. So in terms of the number for the second half, really, that's depending on the amount of homes we've got available to settle. Yes. So we're not expecting a similar sort of uplift from this half to the second half. We think the number will be pretty consistent half-on-half.

Your next question comes from Scott Hudson from MST.

Just a couple of quick ones for me. Firstly, on the, I guess, the rental number. Is that a -- it seems to sort of grow maybe a little bit higher than the 3.5%. Is that a mix benefit coming through from a rental revenue perspective?

It's to do with the clubhouse opening, Scott. So we had, in the last financial year, a number of -- or 4 clubhouses opened. So we don't charge rent until the clubhouse is open. So what we get in the year following is that sort of annualizes through once we kick the rent off. In terms of the rent increase, we put through a 3.5% increase on the 1st of July, and that's the only sort of change that we made other than the clubhouses.

And in terms of the, I guess, the communities coming online, is there any mix benefit that will likely flow through? Or should we just be sort of thinking that 3.5% increase in rental income is...

Yes. So we've got the St Leonards clubhouse. It's due to open in March. So that will kick the rent off of that community. And then other than that, it will just be the next rental increase, which is due on the 1st of July.

Yes. Just in relation to the corporate costs, so obviously, 35% uplift in support office costs. You mentioned the sort of leave entitlement issue in relation to the first half. Or is that expected to unwind in the second half?

Yes. We're certainly encouraging all of our teams to take in some leave. Obviously, in a small team, we need to manage that closely so that we don't have whole [ swathe ] of the business out. But plenty of people in the team have been locked up and are looking forward to getting out there again. And even James and myself are pretty keen to have a holiday in the next few months. So yes, we definitely got a program to work that through.

Sort of guidance or insight as to the quantum of that leave entitlement?

I think that the provision for us runs, all told, at about $2 million for leave balances. But that includes our long service leave provision. So the annual provision is roughly half of that. We are, I guess, inflated relative to our typical running levels in our normal budgetary stuff. But in terms of actual leave balances and people having enormous holdings, that -- this isn't the case. We generally encourage people to take leave pretty regularly, and we sort of have an informal process where we don't like people to get more than sort of 6 weeks leave balances. So yes, it's slightly higher than it typically would run, but it's certainly not at the levels where we're stressing about it.

And partly, Scott, was during the lockdowns, it was pretty hard to take leave. So it's been hard to get people to actually want to take a leave when you can't go anywhere. So that's why we're seeing the upsurge in this half year. We can actually [indiscernible] -- yes.

And then I guess just in the uplift in the employee share scheme costs. I mean, in terms of thinking about it for the full year, is that just sort of annualized, that $1.5 million? Is that how we should be thinking about it?

Well, it's an interesting one, Scott, because it does depend a little bit on where we land with targets and things like that. So our scheme is a tiered scheme. So -- yes. So it's hard to sort of say at this point, but we would love for it to go up primarily because it means we've done really well. So that's what I'm hoping for.

Okay. And then in terms of the digital transformation costs, does that all get done in this half?

Correct, yes. The majority of the costs will be spent before 30 June. There might be a little bit of tweaks and twists after that. But certainly, the substantive stuff will be in this half. And as we flagged at the August results, it will be about $1.5 million total for the year, which will pick up the website plus SAP plus Salesforce.

And are there any cost benefits once the system -- once those systems are in place?

No. There's sort of productivity benefits, and we're certainly looking forward to an improved customer experience as well as improved tools for the team. But it's more an investment in delivering the level of customer experience and employee experience that we want to deliver rather than necessarily a cost benefit. We sort of have grown up with some systems for quite a while now, which are -- were rightsized for the business when they were implemented many years ago. But we've sort of outgrown those now. So it will actually be a bit of a cost increase going forward, but we think it's the right one to deliver the level of service and employee experience that we want to deliver.

And then just last one, you called out that development expenses were higher due to, I guess, some marketing events getting paused during the period. Can you just sort of talk me through the...

That was referenced to the prior period. So in the same period last year, we were in the depths of hard lockdowns. So we paused to lower the marketing events. So the comparative looks like it's gone up a lot. But really, we just kind of got back to normal.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Michael Peet from Goldman Sachs.

James and Darren, congratulations on a great result in tough times.

Thanks, Michael.

Thanks, Michael.

Just first one, James, I've been juggling 2 calls so apologies if you've commented further on this. But I heard you mention younger -- you're running into a younger customer. Could you just comment on the mix you're seeing between couples and singles, working versus retired maybe versus what you saw a couple of years ago?

Yes. So just at our newer communities, we are starting to see more people working full time, part time, and we are seeing younger people come into communities. So -- and that's quite exciting for us because it really opens up the addressable market for us. Yes. So -- and we're also sort of seeing that as a very viable housing option for people still working. We've promoted the sort of home/office opportunity and the work-from-home sort of space as well and so leant into that with some new product ideas as well in the housing product. So yes, it's not a landslide yet. But just -- it's an early trickle sort of going. This is sort of spelling something about the future. And so our marketing and turn of voice does lean into that a bit. It's got a sort of -- a slightly more youthful voice, and we sort of changed the positioning of Lifestyle slightly. It used to be sort of empowering possibilities. It's now more around [ casting ] change. And so it might sound significant. But in the nuance, it does actually make us think a bit differently about how we talk to the market. So yes, watch this space around that. I think we just launched a guy called [ Murray Condo ], who's a takeoff of Marie Kondo. So Murray is going to do some heavy lifting around this space for us, particularly with people still working.

And just a question on resale. Could you comment maybe on days on market? I mean, has that come in markedly on your resales?

Yes. Absolutely, yes. We're finding anything we list, we sell. Yes, it's the shortest I've ever seen in my experience, yes. That -- so yes, it's quite exciting stuff, you could say. Anything we list, we sell.

Final one from me. I think following on from Nick's question earlier about just sort of more shorter term, what's the sort of availability or the pipeline looking like? And should we expect a land acquisition or 2 in the second half?

Well, Chris, every time he buys a site, he has like -- so he's bought 3 in the last 6 months. And then he buys -- when we give him about a week, Darren and I, and then we go, "Okay, Chris, where's the next one?" He goes, "For goodness' sake." So yes, working out some really interesting ones at the moment. And so yes, all the long-term ones that we've worked on. So yes, watch this space. It's interesting.

Chris has done a good job sort of filling up the forward pipeline, Michael. So we don't really feel under any pressure to buy right now in terms of delivering what we need to deliver over the next little while. But we do have capacity to buy. So yes, it's a nice spot to be in.

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

I would like just again to thank everyone for joining the call. We really appreciate it and looking forward to catching up with many of you on the road show. So thanks again for joining us.

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