The company's realised profit, excluding property revaluations, went up 25% to $36 million for the six months ended September.
The profit after tax, including property revaluations, went up 36% to $52.3 million and the profit before tax was up 29% to $52.4 million.
However the profit was helped this year by a substantially lower tax payment of $195,000 compared with more than $2 million in the previous corresponding period (pcp).
The interim dividend was up 35% to 3.4c per share from 2.7c in the pcp.
Forsyth Barr broker Tony Conroy said the stand-out area was new sales, both from new sites and existing sites.
The new sales were up 59% in terms of actual sales compared with the previous year. On a dollar basis, the new sales were up 71% compared with the previous year.
"Demographics look great for this stock," he said.
Ryman chairman David Kerr said the company was delighted with the first-half result.
"The significant growth in profit is largely due to us completing several new apartment blocks over the past six months which have all proved very popular," Mr Kerr said.
During the half-year, Ryman completed 190 retirement village units and 117 rest-home beds across five existing villages.
The company also started work on its new Dunedin and Gisborne villages and bought a site for a new village in Tauranga, he said.
The Yvette Williams village, in Dunedin, would have its roof and brickwork completed by Christmas.
The village, named after the Dunedin-born athlete who in 1952 became the first New Zealand woman to win an Olympic gold medal, already had 70 of it 122 rooms filled.
The three-storey facility would contain dementia care, rest-home and assisted-living suites.
Dr Kerr said Ryman was fortunate to be in such a strong financial position as it allowed it to continue to invest in new aged-care facilities in New Zealand while at the same time embarking on development of its first village in Australia.
"We are trading well and we are on track to achieve our target of 15% growth in realised profit for the full year," he said.
