Posted on 09:24 PM, December 20, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
PROPERTY developers under the Andrew L. Tan-led Megaworld group will launch P60 billion worth of projects or more than 18,000 residential units next year, with the real estate player allotting a record capital expenditure next year due to strong demand.
“The Megaworld Group plans to embark on a massive home building program that will roll out some 18,673 residential units with an aggregate floor area of more than 830,000 square meters (sq. m.) in 2011,” the company said in a disclosure yesterday.
“The confidence level in the real estate sector is very high,” said Mr. Tan, chairman and chief executive of Megaworld.
“Many investors both here and abroad believe that our country is now moving in the right direction, and we see a surge of investments especially in infrastructure areas, which will open up more growth opportunities not only for the entire economy but also for the real estate industry,” he added.
The Megaworld group is composed of three brands: Megaworld Corp., listed Empire East Land Holdings, Inc., and Suntrust Properties, Inc.
“It [will be] a record spending for us,” John T. Hao, investor relations head of Megaworld Corp., said yesterday in a phone interview. Mr. Hao did not provide the previous years’ figures for the group.
Megaworld will account for P41 billion worth of projects that will have a total 11,110 units and an aggregate floor area of 372,000 sq. m.
New projects include One Eastwood Avenue at Eastwood City in Quezon City, 81 Newport Boulevard and 101 Newport Boulevard at Newport City in Pasay, and Viceroy Residences and two new towers of The Venice at McKinley Hill in Taguig.
It will be higher than the P17-billion allotment this year and seven projects launches.
Megaworld also expects to complete more than 600,000 sq. m. of office and retail spaces for the business process outsourcing markets at McKinley Hill, Newport City, Iloilo, and Cebu City next year.
New office and retail ventures will hike rental revenues to P5 billion in 2012 from P1.97 billion in the nine-month period that ended September, the company said.
For Empire East Land and Suntrust Properties, new projects worth P19 billion equivalent to 7,500 residential units and an aggregate floor area of more than 466,000 sq. m. will be launched in Cavite and Laguna next year.
These include new phases of Little Baguio Terraces in San Juan, Rochester Park in Pasig, Cambridge Village in the Pasig-Cainta area, San Lorenzo Place in Makati, Suntrust Parkview in Manila, and Sonoma and Suntrust Sta. Rosa Heights in Laguna.
This year, Empire East launched five new projects in Metro Manila and Laguna, backed by P12 billion in capital.
“We have never been this bullish on the property sector, and we look forward to continued bright prospects not only in 2011 but long after that,” Mr. Tan said.
In the last two decades, the Megaworld group completed more than 200 residential and office buildings with a total floor area of 5.4 million square meters.
The group of property firms sold P36.6 billion worth of real estate projects from January to September this year, up by 81% from reservation sales of P20.2 billion for the same period in 2009.
Shares in Megaworld rose by P0.02 to P2.35 each while Empire East was unchanged at P0.53 apiece yesterday. -- Neil Jerome C. Morales
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