Posted on April 03, 2012 09:39:04 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
PROPERTY DEVELOPER Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. is looking to spend P15 billion this year mostly for mass housing as it aims to grow revenues from reservation payments.
“Vista Land has allocated a capital expenditure of P15 billion for the year, 45% higher than last year’s capex budget,” the company said in a statement.
A bulk of the amount will be allotted for construction of projects under the company’s flagship brand, Camella Homes, which sells residential units valued at P3.5 million and below.
“Our capex will primarily be for Camella. The housing market is very strong in terms of demand, and demand in provincial areas continues to be strong as well. That’s why we’re focusing on that area,” Ricardo B. Tan, Jr., Vista Land chief financial officer, told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview yesterday.
Earlier this year, the company bared plans to develop eight residential condominiums worth P10 billion and 32 residential subdivisions worth P32 billion this year.
Vista Land added it is targeting hitting reservation revenues of P28 billion to P30 billion by the year-end, compared to a target of P24 billion last year.
Moving forward, Vista Land said it will be building Camella Candon, an 11-hectare masterplanned community in Ilocos Sur, and Camella Puerto Princesa, an eight-hectare subdivision project in Palawan.
This comes as the company looks to exploit the popularity of its housing projects among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), many of which have lived in world-class communities abroad.
“Since a good number of our OFWs hail from the provinces, there is strong preference for house and lots in their hometowns of origin where they intend to live in with their families,” Jerylle Luz C. Quismundo, Camella Homes president said, noting that the brand already has a presence in 28 provinces and 56 municipalities and cities nationwide.
“As the runaway leader in horizontal housing, we intend to further cement our hold in this market with our country-wide expansion,” Ms. Quismundo added.
In a separate development, Vista Land said that it has forged a long-term lease deal with Tantoco-owned supermarket operator Rustan’s Supercenters, Inc., which will put up a Rustan’s Fresh Supermarket at the Evia mixed-use development in Las Pinas City.
“We are extremely optimistic that Rustan’s will be very successful in Evia and we look forward to other potential partnerships with the Rustan’s group in the future.” Manuel Paolo Villar, Vista Land chief executive officer, said in a separate statement.
Last year, the Villar-led firm launched a total of 23 projects valued at P21 billion, an earlier report showed.
Vista Land, owned by the family of Senator Manuel B. Villar, Jr., has so far delivered about 200,000 units to buyers since 1977, according to the company’s Web site.
The property developer grew its nine-month net income last year by 20% to P2.16 billion from P2.06 billion in 2010 on the back of record sales and completion rates from its affordable housing segment Camella Homes, according to its latest financial statement.
Vista Land shares rose by 0.52% to P3.84 yesterday. -- Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente
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