‘A bit more optimism’ brings record half year sales for Summerset

Thursday, 28 August 2025

Almost 60% of homes in the first stage of Summerset's flagship St Johns village in Auckland are either sold or under contract.

'A bit more optimism' in the property market has led to Summerset Group announcing its highest ever first half of sales in the six months to the end of June.

The NZX-listed retirement village operator released its interim results on Thursday, and they revealed it made $127.2 million in after-tax profit in the first half of the 2025 year, up 26% on the same period in 2024.

Underlying profit was $106.6m, an increase of 19%, which reflected the company’s strong sales performance, it said.

It sold 692 occupancy rights agreements (ORA) for units in its villages in the first half, a 22% increase on the 588 sales in the same period in 2024.

The result was made up of 354 new sales and 338 sales across New Zealand and Australia, and was a record first half high for the company.

Summerset’s sales picked up strongly in the second quarter, chief executive Scott Scoullar says.

Almost 60% of the apartments and care suites in the first stage of the company’s flagship $350m St Johns village in Auckland were now either sold or under contract.

Summerset chief executive Scott Scoullar said the company had delivered a credible result underpinned by the company’s sustainable growth strategy.

The markets in New Zealand and Australia were both showing signs of improvement, but it was still a challenging economic environment to operate in.

“Despite this we’ve delivered value for our shareholders, maintained our record resident satisfaction and had record sales for the half.

“We’re pleased with our start to the year, and will continue to work hard to deliver sales in the second half, building on this momentum.”

When speaking to The Post before the results announcement, Scoullar said there had been a pick up of sales in the second quarter of the year, and it reflected more sales happening in the broader property market.

Cotality’s latest data shows that house sales around the country recently returned to “normal” levels after the deep trough of 2022 to 23. It put the sales count over the year to July at 87,482.

Summerset was seeing a bit more optimism in the market and from prospective village residents compared to twelve months ago, Scoullar said.

Summerset is building about 600 new homes a year, Scoullar says.

“People were interested in buying into a village, but were holding off trying to sell their home. They were worried it wouldn’t sell, and they’d be wasting money on a campaign.

“But that sentiment has shifted, and our forward looking sales pipeline is well positioned to deliver.”

The company had managed its build rates to align with market demand and economic conditions, it said in the results.

During the first half of 2025, it delivered 313 new homes in New Zealand, and had construction underway at a total of 15 villages across ten regions. That work included the development of its new $300m village in Auckland’s Half Moon Bay.

Scoullar told The Post the company was building about 600 homes a year around New Zealand, and that made it one of the country’s larger residential builders.

“We’re proud we’ve been able to maintain consistent levels of construction throughout the downturn, and offer support to the construction industry at a challenging time.”

The company’s staged growth in Australia was also progressing well, he said. It now had three villages under construction, and was on track to deliver 50 to 80 homes in Australia this year.

Summerset was keeping a wary eye on economic conditions, but was optimistic it could continue the momentum seen so far in 2025, he added.

“We’ll continue to focus on providing a leading retirement village offering while delivering results for shareholders.”

Shareholders will get an interim dividend of NZ11.3 cents per share.

Summerset is one of the country’s biggest retirement village operators and developers, with 40 villages completed or in development in New Zealand. It has three villages in development in Australia, and owns four other proposed sites in Victoria, Australia.

It had 6913 retirement village units, a land bank total that would allow a further 5823 units to be built, and total assets of $8.7 billion, up 18% on the first half of 2024.

More than 9100 people live in Summerset’s villages, and they are staffed by more than 3100 employees.