Strong land sales, strengthening market drive CDI profit growth

24th February 2025 By Paul Yandall | paul@propertyticker.co.nz | @propertyticker

CDL Investments New Zealand Limited has reported a profit after tax of $15.4m for the year to December 2024, up from the previous corresponding period’s $13.5m.

The NZX-listed residential developer said the result reflected strong demand for land and improved market conditions, as property sales and rental income rose from $30.78m to $49.06m.

“We recorded a total of 92 residential section sales during 2024, notably from Prestons Park [in Christchurch], which performed above expectations along with contributions from our Kewa and Tram Valley Road subdivisions in Auckland, which are now sold out,” said CDI. 

“Pre-titled sales have begun at our Iona development in Havelock North and we expect both Prestons Park and Iona to continue to be strong sellers in 2025.”

The company added that its net profit was impacted by a one-off non-cash deferred tax adjustment of $3.9m, following a government policy change on commercial building depreciation​.

Board chair Desleigh Jameson said the results reflected a solid turnaround from 2023 she was “pleased that we have been able to get CDI back on track in 2024”. 

“Property markets have stabilized over the last year reflecting the impact of lower inflation and interest rates and our shareholders can see that reflected in a 50% increase in our gross profit”, she said.

“While our overall net profit result was affected by the one-off non-cash deferred tax adjustment of $3.9m due to the change of government policy on the depreciation of commercial buildings, we increased our total revenue by 59.4%. That confirms there is a healthy demand for our residential sections across the country.”

CDI maintained its dividend at 3.5 cents per share which would be payable on 16 May 2025 with a record date of 2 May 2025.

The market value of CDI’s property holdings at year end as independently valued was $422.8m, up from $412.6m. That was comprised of $357.7m for its development property, up from $349.9m, and $65.1m for its investment property portfolios, up from $62.7m.

At cost, CDI’s portfolio was valued at $287.7m, up from $260.4m.

“We are still actively acquiring land and in 2024 we settled 20.9 hectares of land in the Nelson/ Tasman and Canterbury regions, the latter being a strategically important industrial zoned piece of land for our future commercial developments,” CDI chief executive Jason Adams said.

“We want to ensure that our development pipeline across our residential and commercial portfolios will be secure over the next few years.

“While our residential development will definitely continue to be our core business, we have seen how our warehouse projects have added value to the company and we are keen to capitalize on such opportunities.”

Looking ahead, CDI expected economic indicators to remain stable within both its residential and industrial property markets.

“From a commercial point of view, we are keen to advance development of our industrial-zoned land at Wairakei Road, Christchurch which we acquired this year. Planning works for this land have commenced and we are looking to prioritise development of this land to meet current demand,” the company said.

“[The] board is confident that good progress will continue across our developments, current sales and development pipeline, as we look to again improve on last year’s performance during 2025.”