By Neil Jerome C. Morales (The
Philippine Star) | Updated January 6, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The country’s
largest homebuilder Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. plans to venture into
hotels and resorts in the next two years, riding on the tourism boom of the
Philippines.
Listed Vista Land will also focus on
launching more masterplanned communities starting this year, its top official
said.
“We don’t have any presence in hotels
and resorts. That’s probably in the next year or two,” Vista Land chairman
Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said in an interview.
“I am excited about tourism, which is
a strong area so we will be participating there,” Villar said.
Hotel and resort projects will allow
Vista Land to complete its offerings in the property sector. So far, Vista
Land’s residential communities also feature Vista malls and office space.
Villar said the property firm already
created a new unit that will focus on hotel and resort developments.
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To test its capacity in the
hospitality industry, Vista Land operates several condominium units as hotels,
much like serviced apartments, Villar said.
“Maybe by 2015, we will be building
our own hotels,” he said.
The Department of Tourism (DoT)
earlier estimated that more than 20,000 new rooms must be built by 2016 to
serve the growing tourism market. The government targets attracting 10 million
foreign tourists by 2016 while encouraging investments in hotels and
tourism-related infrastructure.
In January to August, the Philippines
registered 3.18 million international tourist arrivals, up 12 percent from 2.85
million year-on-year.
For its core residential business,
Vista Land is focusing more on masterplanned communities.
“Another thrust for us is
masterplanned communities. We will be launching them one by one in the next
three years,” Villar said, adding that the company will introduce to the market
one to two communities per year.
Vista Land is the holding company of
five business units: luxury brand Brittany, upper middle income segment Crown
Asia, middle income unit Camella Homes, Communities Philippines and condominium
builder Vista Residences.
The listed property firm targeted to
jack up its profits and revenues by 15-20 percent in 2013 from P4.37 billion
and P16.33 billion in 2012, respectively.
In January to September, Vista Land’s
profits rose 17 percent to P3.8 billion while real estate revenues picked up 22
percent to P14.8 billion.
In the past 38 years, the property
firm has completed more than 250,000 housing units in 31 provinces and 64
cities and municipalities around the country.
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