Buoyant Auckland house sales help Metlifecare

Metlifecare CEO Alan Edwards. Photo / Natalie Slade

Auckland's buoyant house sales market is helping Metlifecare, loan to value restrictions are not harming the retirement giant's sales and a further 1058 units and hospital beds are being developed.

Alan Edwards, chief executive, told shareholders at the AGM this afternoon how new residents were doing well from their house sales.

"The residential real estate market, particularly in Auckland, continues to perform strongly and this has had a positive impact on our business. Most of our prospective residents need to sell their home before moving into one of our villages. A strong real estate market often helps them to sell their home quickly and at a better price," Edwards said.

"The new loan to value restrictions seem to have had little impact on Metlifecare and applications have remained strong," he said.

Metlifecare has about 5000 residents and is one of the biggest operators listed on the NZX.

Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and Hamilton are the company's target areas, he said and the business has 23 villages in the North Island but is building two new Auckland villages: construction of the $40 million The Orchards is under way at Glenfield and resource consent has been granted for the new $160 million Greenwich Gardens at Unsworth Heights, also on the North Shore where the company is developing 75 villas, 235 apartments and a 48-bed hospital on the site were 53,000 cubic metres of soil has been removed.

The third stage of The Poynton has been completed and construction of stage four is under way, brining an extra 117 new apartments to that site near the North Shore Hospital on the corner of Wairau Rd and Shakespeare Rd near Milford.

Consent has been granted for expansion of The Avenues in Tauranga allowing 42 units to be added and a 38-bed hospital.

"We're currently working on several other brownfields projects at our villages," Edwards said of expansion on existing sites.

"We will continue to convert the development opportunities within our existing portfolio. Our development pipeline is currently 1058 additional units and care beds of which 202 are currently under construction. Last year we told our shareholders that we would, on a sustainable basis, deliver 200+ units (villas, apartments and hospital/rest home beds) per annum by 2015 and we remain on track to achieve this," Edwards said.

The company wants to be the country's leading retirement village operator, planning expansion on existing and new sites, particularly in the upper North island.