Retirement village

PHOTO: SUPPLIED The construction of Metlifecare’s new Gulf Rise retirement village on Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast is well underway with the first apartment building opening in the past six months.

Metlifecare has refired its stalled $1 billion building programme after tackling its high new village construction costs and lower development profits than other leading retirement village operators.

The company, which has more than 5600 residents in 25 villages, most in the upper half of the North Island and in and around Auckland, posted a $24.6 million after tax profit for the half year to the end of December 2019, 28 per cent more than the same six months in 2018.

The company slowed the $940m building programme mid-last year for a short time to target measures to tackle “construction cost pressures”. The “development margin”, the money made from building new units and selling them, had been lower than other retirement village operators also with big building programmes.

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