By Neil Jerome C. Morales (The
Philippine Star) | Updated February 7, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The real estate
holding vehicle of the Villar family has hit the upper end of its growth target
for 2013 on the back of strong residential property sales.
Robust take-up has encouraged Vista
Land & Lifescapes Inc., the country’s largest homebuilder, to launch
another P25 billion worth of projects this year, its top official said.
“Definitely, we achieved the
20-percent growth for 2013,” said Vista Land CEO Manuel Paolo Villar.
Vista Land, riding on the property
boom and high demand for horizontal housing nationwide, earlier announced that
its profits and revenues rose 15 to 20 percent. In 2012, its earnings surged 24
percent to a record P4.37 billion while real estate revenues climbed by a fifth
to P16.33 billion.
For this year, Villar said the
property developer will continue posting growth in income and revenues.
With the expected growth in the
property sector driven by overseas Filipino remittances, Vista Land is set to
continue its aggressive expansion program.
“We’re still going to maintain the
targets we mentioned last year. No big changes yet,” Villar said.
The property firm earlier announced
its plan to launch P12 billion worth of projects composed of 12,000 units, marking
the same pace of rollout compared with 2013.
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. It will also roll out its socialized housing arm
Lumina Homes Inc. this year.
In January to September last year,
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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