Wednesday, June 11, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
EMPIRE East Land Holding, Inc. said it may launch another horizontal development within the next 12 months targeting a market that is more upscale than its flagship subdivision in Laguna.
Anthony Charlemagne C. Yu, Empire East president, said the company is buying land within the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Cala-barzon) area for its next project. The real-estate developer is eyeing properties in Cavite and Laguna and is accummulating a landbank of 100 hectares in those provinces.
“We have acquired substantial properties [al]ready there but we’re still consolidating and we’re ready to acquire more. It would be more upscale than Laguna Bel-Air. At the time we were doing Laguna Bel-air, there was nothing in Sta. Rosa. But now Laguna has become a growth area and we think that it is timely for us to introduce a product that is more upscale than Laguna Bel-Air,” Yu told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s stockholders meeting.
Laguna has been more attractive to property firms since the area’s development is more “planned” than others within the Greater Metro Manila area. Even though a lot of companies have begun their expansive developments in the Canlubang and Sta. Rosa area, competition is not as tight elsewhere, he said.
“In fact we tend to complement one another because all of us would be promoting a growth area. When everyone is promoting a growth area, the price becomes more stable. And Laguna compared to other provinces is more planned because it is the later ones to be developed,” Yu said.
The middle-income developer is still upbeat about prospects for this year despite inflationary pressures and climbing interest rates. Since inflation has been caused by the supply side and not because of increasing demand, Yu said the company is positive that central bank will not jack up interest rates rapidly, which may in turn hurt financing for homes.
“While the interest rates seem to be going up, it is still much lower than what we used to [have]. The lowering of interest rates is a very recent phenomenon, only two to three years ago. Our in-house financing remains the same,” he said.
Because of this, Empire East still expects demand for homes priced between P1.8 million and P3 million to remain, thus its efforts to ramp up projects this year. The company is building three new projects, including Pioneer Highlands in Mandaluyong, Little Baguio Terraces in San Juan and San Lorenzo Place in Makati.
For the next five years, Empire East is earmarking P6 billion to P8 billion for its capital expenditures, excluding land-banking for its ongoing projects. The amount would come from the company’s internally generated funds in addition to the P2.6 billion it earned from the preemptive rights offering it conducted early this year.
Late last year, the company disclosed that its profit would grow at a double-digit rate this year. Empire East was fully consolidated into Megaworld Corp.’s accounts starting this year as a subsidiary since the parent increased its stake from 45.2 percent to 59.8 percent. For the first three months, Empire East’s net income inched up by 5 percent to P58.5 million. Megaworld expects stronger earnings growth for the subsidiary this year on account of its new projects. -- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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