By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine
Star) | Updated March 10, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Gotianun-led
Filinvest Land Inc. is aggressively expanding its residential property
portfolio with plans to roll out P17.5 billion worth of projects this year or
more than double the value of projects in 2013.
Sources said FLI remains bullish on
the property sector despite fears of a housing bubble, pointing out that a big
chunk or 64 percent of the projects to be launched this year are mid-rise and
high-rise residential buildings.
The company is building P8.3 billion
worth of high-rise projects in Buendia and Binondo to take advantage of the
continued strong demand for residential properties.
Filipinos living abroad are expected
to take up 30 to 32 percent of FLI’s total sales which are forecast to rise by
10 percent.
Capitalizing on a growing economy, FLI
plans to more than double its leasing portfolio to 870,000 square meters by
2018 from 345,000 as of end-December last year.
It plans to launch two office
buildings near Mall of Asia with a total gross leasable area of 32,000
sqm. Plans are also underway to
construct four additional office buildings with a combined GLA of 122,000 sqm
in the company’s Filinvest City along Alabang Zapote road.
Aside from this, FLI also plans to put
up buildings catering to the business process outsourcing business in
newly-acquired properties located near Cubao, Ortigas and GMA-7 in Quezon City.
For its retail leasing business, FLI
expects to make available additional 80,000 sqm of retail space in 2015 from
its mall expansion in Alabang and Cebu.
To maintain its position as the
biggest mall in southern part of Metro Manila, FLI is developing malls in
Tagaytay, Cavite and Binondo which would boost GLA by 50,000 sqm in the next
two years.
The company sees its profit rising by
13 to 14 percent this year. In the nine
months ending September 2013, FLI posted a net income of P2.44 billion, up 22
percent in the same period the previous year.
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