Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (NYSE:ELS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brad Heffern: Okay. Got it. And then moving to the transient business. I guess, can you talk about what the underlying assumption is that’s in the guide? And then in the core numbers, I think transient was down 16% or so in the fourth quarter. I know there can be some moving pieces there with the side count. So, I’m curious if that’s a comparable number and then what your expectations are for ’23?

Paul Seavey: Yes. I think if you take a look at the guidance page in the supplemental, you’ll see our footnote disclosure that provides the expected percentage contribution from annual rent. And from that, you can derive our expectations for combined seasonal and transient in the first quarter as well as the full year. I’ll say that we anticipate the strong demand for longer-term stays that in a monthly stay that drives the seasonal business, anticipate that strong demand will continue and will offset unfavorable impact, if any, on transient rents, resulting from availability of fewer sites, market-specific demand trends and perhaps weather. You expect these combined rental income stream to deliver modest growth in 2023.

Marguerite Nader: And I think, Brad, we’ve experienced operating with our V-parks over the last 15 years. We’re very experienced. When you look at annual, seasonal and transient results over that time, transient revenue has had the most volatility by far. We’ve seen periods of negative growth, flat growth, outsized growth. And that’s why we’re really focused on the business of the annual rental stream to reduce that volatility.

Brad Heffern: Ok, thank you.

Marguerite Nader: Thanks Brad.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Samir Khanal with Evercore. Your line is open.

Samir Khanal: Thank you. Marguerite or Paul, just curious, are you doing anything differently this year from a projection standpoint, for expenses sort of get a better read on utilities? I know last year, there was sort of two guidance increases on expenses. So just wondering how you’re thinking about that line utilities from a projection standpoint? And how much sort of conservatism you’ve baked in this time around?

Paul Seavey: I think certainly, the approach, I mentioned the sources that we use to build our model. I’ll say that we’ve refined our approach historically because of the consistency that we saw in utilities over our long history. We did place a greater reliance on our past experience when developing our annual model. This year, we stepped away from that a bit and look to other sources to provide insights and develop the model.

Samir Khanal: Okay. Got it. And then just on new home sales, gross revenues saw a meaningful decline sort of year-over-year in that number. Is that just a function of sort of the macro environment? Just maybe a little bit more color you can provide on that.

Patrick Waite: Yes. Samir, it’s Patrick. For the quarter, we were down 35% in new home sales. There’s a few drivers there, really largely impacted by the Hurricanes that came through Florida in late September and then Nicole mid-November. We have seen some pressures just with respect to construction activity and the number of new homes that we have ready for the full quarter. That was exacerbated in Florida as a result of the hurricanes. Likewise in Florida, the disruption in just kind of the cadence home sales, the marketing, the showing and the eventual closing of those transactions to new homebuyers experienced some disruptions that led to a push of about 15 new home sales. Some of that is a mix of potential buyers just reassessing and potentially pulling back from purchasing a home at this time and the balance was for just delayed closings as we work through the timing disruptions of the hurricanes.

Samir Khanal: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Keegan Carl with Wolf Research. Your line is open.