[ Malaya.com.ph ] May 18, 2011
The property market has become challenging with new players providing added supply, yet prospects remain rosy for Vista Land and Lifescape Inc., officials said.
A lot of new players have surfaced, requiring Vista Land to "manage" the "supply issue" in the years to come, Paolo Villar, Vista Land chief finance officer, said.
He said the company remains focused on building up its retail space portfolio to develop a recurring income base while continuously developing residential properties catering mostly to the end-user market.
Vista Land yesterday reported that profit for the first quarter reached P873 million, a 26 percent increase from the previous year’s P694 million.
Revenues of the company stood at P3.28 billion, up 22 percent from P2.68 billion a year ago.
Ricardo B. Tan, Vista Land senior vice-president for finance, said sales take up of Vista Land’s units reached P5.9 billion, 17 percent higher than the previous year.
Tan said the company is on track to achieve its target of reservation sales of around P23 billion to P24 billion for the year.
Tan added that the Vista Land board of directors has approved the declaration of a special cash dividend of P0.035 per share.
Tan said Vista Land is the "clear leader" in the detached-housing market, "outselling the number two player by a 3:1 margin," and outselling the combined six publicly listed players two to one.
Villar said Vista Land’s focus on developing single-detached housing units is the key to being a preferred brand in the housing category given the inherent nature of the market to be predominantly end-user.
This has helped the company improve its group brand awareness to 99 percent last year, from 94 percent in 2005.
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