Yes, I was aware of the company's land bank, but I haven't seen it presented chronologically, so thanks for compiling it.
The slowing rate if property accumulation, besides being explained by the law of growth off a bigger base, is also interesting in the context of what has been happening in terms of the company's Operating Rental Lease Commitments, which have rapidly ratcheted up a gear, especially in the past two years
OPERATING LEASE RENTAL COMMITMENTS ($m) [growth on pcp]
Overall, the CAGR in the leases taken on by REH is 6.9%pa, which is well ahead of the rate of at which they have been accumulating property over that five year period, based on your analysis.
I'm not sure what this really tells us, other than maybe it has been a bit of a lessee's market in recent years and that they may have secured some good sites at good rates at a time when they had become coy about commercial property valuations. I'm not really sure what else to conclude on this score. I'm also not sure how the acquisitions they made last year have impacted these metrics.
But what I do think is interesting is that, while they have been clearly increasing their commercial presence at quite a pace - be it by purchasing sites or leasing them - this has been taking place at rate that is well below the growth in revenue over that same period: Excluding Actrol's revenues, REH's core revenues had been relatively static for the five years ending in Dec 2013, namely just 1.4%pa CAGR (I choose this as the end point because Actrol was acquired in January 2014).
To me this is another proxy clue that their asset base isn't sweating the way it will once it gets to a position of greater maturity and as the cycle continues to gain momentum.
REH Price at posting:
$35.50 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
