Record sales for Summerset - despite a slow market

Friday, 27 February 2026

Retirement village operator Summerset Group saw its after-tax profit take a dive in the 2025 financial year, but it is doing “pretty well” in a sluggish market, its chief executive says.

That’s because its revenue is up, and its total sales numbers bet the record high set the previous financial year.

The NZX-listed company made $259.7 million after tax over the 12 months to December, a 22% decline on its $330.8m profit in the 2024 financial year.

Summerset’s chief executive, Scott Scoullar, said the change was largely driven by the impact of lower median house prices on revaluations of the company’s portfolio over the year.

Read more:

• Reimagining retirement: Inside Oceania’s newest, future-ready village

• NZ set to run short of retirement village units, report warns

• Ryman Healthcare targets $200m from land sales in strategy refresh

“Combined with that, the value of the units we build have a discount when vacant, and we’re holding more stock at discounted rates for longer as potential residents take longer to settle their sales in the slower housing market.”

But underlying profit was $234.2m, an increase of 13% on the last financial year, and total revenue was up 13% to $361.8m.

The company sold 1560 occupancy rights agreements (ORA) for units in its villages, up 26% on the previous year which was itself a record sales year.

Of those sales, 805 were new sales - which made 2025 Summerset’s highest new sales year to date.

Scoullar told The Post the company was happy with its strong sales performance, and believed it was doing “pretty well” given the sluggish housing market.

There had been no reduction in demand for retirement village living as people saw value in an environment that was less burdensome than managing their own home, he said.

“The amenities and activities that we offer, the vibrancy of village life, and the aged care options, it appeals to people as a place to spend the later stage of life.

“It just takes them longer to sell their own homes before they can buy an ORA and move in these days.”

Meanwhile, the company had improved its care profitability significantly, but that was not through government funding - it was driven by the sale of aged care rooms under ORAs, he said.

Its care earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization was $18.8m, up from $2.7m the year before.

Scoullar said their long-term strategy continued to deliver results, achieving underlying profit growth and healthy sales, meeting building targets, and hitting milestones in their Australian growth plan.

The company had total assets of NZ$9.2 billion at the year ending December, up 15% on the previous year, he said.

“We have lifted the value of the company by $1.32 per share to have a net tangible assets per share of $13.75, and we are proud to be very focused on growth.”

Summerset reported that it had continued to build at pace over the year, delivering 637 homes in New Zealand and 56 in Australia.

That was consistent with previously announced targets of between 600 to 650 homes in New Zealand and between 50 to 80 in Australia.

It built on 22 sites across New Zealand and Australia in 2025 and completed several projects including the village centre buildings at Cambridge in Waikato, Cranbourne North in Victoria in Australia, and the care centre and apartments at Boulcott in Lower Hutt.

Scoullar said they aimed to continue building at around the same levels in New Zealand over the next year, but construction activity in Australia would pick up more momentum.

He was pleased with the company’s progress in the Australian market, and said that by 2027 it would have homes in the four villages it has in development, up from homes in just one village as year ago.

The company recently bought a site in Mornington in Victoria, and has lodged a planning permit for a new village. It has another three proposed sites in its Australian landbank, all in Victoria.

In New Zealand, Summerset now has 40 villages completed or in development, and has a further seven sites in the landbank. But it planned to sell its Parnell site when the timing was right.

More than 9500 people live in Summerset’s villages,and they are staffed by more than 3200 employees.

Scoullar said the company believed in its value proposition in both New Zealand and Australia going into the 2026 financial year.

“We’ll continue to focus on prudently managing our strong balance sheet while growing and embedding long-term cashflow from our villages and delivering for residents and shareholders.

“We’re pleased to have reduced gearing and expect to see a further reduction in the 2026 financial year.”

In a market insight earlier this month, Craigs Investment Partners analyst Rousseau Lötter said all three listed retirement village operators would benefit from the cyclical upswing underway, but Summerset was their top pick.

“It has been able to continue to grow its portfolio, earnings and net tangible assets at a much faster rate than peers over the recent downturn, underpinned by its development model, and we think this will continue.”

Cashflows should also improve significantly as unsold inventory levels reduced and as Summerset’s relatively young portfolio matured, he said.