Vista Land earmarks P40b for Iloilo project

By Jenniffer B. Austria | Sep. 30, 2015 at 11:15pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]

Homebuilder Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. said Wednesday it earmarked P40 billion to develop a 500-hectare property in Iloilo province into a mixed-use township development.

Vista Land said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Vista City Iloilo would be the company’s flagship development in Visayas with several components, including malls, hotels, office buildings for the business process outsourcing industry and hospitals.

Vista Land has allocated at least 100 hectares of the property to the City Center, where the BPO offices, shopping establishments and hotels will be located.

Vista City Iloilo currently houses two residential villages, which the company initially developed in 2000, supported by various amenities including a school offering primary to secondary education, five clubhouses, parks and playground.

“The integration of the residential project with commercial development will complete Vista City Iloilo’s transformation into a ‘communicity’ with adequate security and convenient transportation services,” Vista Land said.

Vista City Iloilo, which will cover about 500 hectares, spans across Oton, Pavia and San Miguel on Panay Island. It is located near schools, including the University of the Philippines Visayas, Central Philippine University, University of San Agustin, and West Visayas University. It is also close to the Western Visayas Medical Center and The Medical City Iloilo.

Vista Land, the real estate unit of the Villar group, is focused on developing horizontal housing projects as well as integrated developments dubbed as “communicities.”

“Communicities are innovative master-planned city developments designed to be completely self-contained, with vast properties that offer facilities, amenities, community structures and commercial establishments closer to a city than a mere residential village,” Vista Land said.

Major players in the real estate industry, including Megaworld Corp. and DoubleDragon Properties Inc., recently expanded to Iloilo as the province has emerged as an economic hub of Western Visayas.

Vista Land, which has built over 300,000 homes, has established a presence in 35 provinces and 90 cities and municipalities catering to various segments of the market.

To date, the group has 23 innovative master-planned city developments spread all over the country.

Share price of Vista Land on Wednesday closed at P5.03, down P0.04.

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‘Signature’ Ayala building to rise

By Jenniffer B. Austria | Sep. 29, 2015 at 11:50pm  [ manilastandardtoday.com ]

Ayala Land Inc. said it will spend P6 billion to acquire and develop the former Jaka Tower along Ayala Avenue into a 49-story premium office tower to be called Alveo Financial Tower.

Alveo Land head of project development group Jennylle Tupaz said in a press briefing Tuesday the company started pre-selling the office units in Alveo Financial Tower at an average price of P240,000 per square meter to generate a total of P11 billion in sales.

The company has sold over 60 percent of the total units so far, generating P5.6 billion in sales take-up.

Tupaz said 80 percent of the office unit buyers were local investors, while 20 percent were taken up by foreign investors.

“Including the acquisition cost, we will spend a total of P6 billion for the project,” Tupaz.

Alveo Financial Tower is envisioned to be a signature office building in the heart of Ayala Avenue.

“With its much-coveted location on Ayala Avenue, Alveo Financial Tower has become a rare investment opportunity for high-powered businesses and organizations wanting to be part of the country’s premier financial center,” said Tupaz,

At P240,000 per sq. m., Alveo Financial Tower will be the most expensive office development along the Makati Central Business District. One office unit with an average size of 116 square meters will cost P27.8 million. The tower is slated for turnover in 2020.

Alveo Financial Tower sits on a prime 2,400-square-meter plot of land along Ayala Avenue. It will offer a total of 363 office units and a variety of  amenities and facilities that enhance corporate activity.

Ayala Land purchased the Jaka Tower in 2014.

Jaka Tower was originally designed to be a 49-story office skyscraper by the architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. It was supposed to be the first high-rise project of the then fledging Jaka Property Group of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Construction started in 1996 and was scheduled for completion by 1999. However, the project was halted when construction reached the 21st floor amid the 1997 Asian financial crisis that affected many other property developers.

Tupaz said Alveo Financial Tower would form a major component of City Gate, Ayala Land’s P20-billion masterplanned mixed-use development strategically located at the rejuvenated northern tip of Ayala Avenue.

City Gate will have a 2.2-hectare core area containing 81,000 square meters of gross leasable office space and 14,000 square meters of premium retail space, as well as featuring upscale residential developments, green open spaces and a 312-suite hotel.

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Young population to help Philippines become economic powerhouse

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) | Updated September 28, 2015 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - Rising investments in human capital amid the rising number of young population would help groom the Philippines to become a major economic powerhouse over the long term.

Editha Martin, executive director of the Investor Relations Office (IRO), said the government’s growing budget for human capital development shows the intention to further improve the quality of workforce.

She said rising investments in human capital also reflects the government’s desire to make the economy reap the potential demographic dividends.

“Consistently rising investments in health and education will help ensure that the Philippines does not miss out on the opportunity offered by its entry to the demographic window,” she added.

Starting this year until 2050, the Philippines is said to be within the “demographic window,” loosely defined as a period when a great majority of the population are of working age.

Because the number of workforce far outweighs that of dependents, the increase in incomes may accelerate.

But this can only happen if there is good quality of labor force.

Under the Aquino administration, the government’s budget allocations for education and health have risen substantially year after year.

The budget for the Department of Education increased 18.6 percent to P367.1 billion, while that of the Department of Health went up 19.2 percent to P108.2 billion for this year.

Moreover, the budget for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, which encourages school attendance among children from poor households, is high in the government’s agenda. Its budget of P62.3 billion for this year is six times the P10-billion allocation in 2010.

For his part, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan stressed the need to sustain the trend of rising investments in human capital development.

“We need to understand that having a fast growing working-age population is a boon for the economy, but only if we do two things: invest more and more in human capital development and make sure the job opportunities match the skills of the people,” Balisacan said.

The country’s chief economist also highlighted the need to make education more accessible and to intensify measures that will make the country’s investment climate more attractive.

Based on official projection, the country’s working-age population (between 15 and 64 years old) this year accounts for 66.6 percent of the total population of 101.6 million.

The share of the working-age population is expected to rise to 68 percent of 110 million people in 2020, and further to 70.6 percent of 125.3 people million in 2030.

Government strategies and private-sector suggestions to further boost the country’s chances of reaping demographic dividends would be discussed in more detail during the 28th Philippine Economic Briefing on Sept. 30.   

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SM Prime allots P65b for 2016

By Jenniffer B. Austria | Sep. 27, 2015 at 11:10pm [ manilastandardtoday.com]

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest integrated real estate developer, said capital expenditures in 2016 will reach P65 billion, higher than P64 billion programmed spending for this year.

SM Prime said in a regulatory filing it would earmark about 52 percent of the 2016 capital spending for shoppings malls, 38 percent for residential, 7 percent for commercial and 3 percent for hotels and convention centers.

“SM Prime plans to fund its capital expenditure through recurring income flows and external financing,” the property developer said.

The company said its mall expansion plans were geared towards major cities outside Metro Manila.  It said per capita income and rent per square meter in several cities were already comparable to Metro Manila, as business process outsourcing companies expanded to the provinces.

The group said it still planned to expand in Metro Manila, by developing supercenters, or malls consisting of less than 100,000 square meters of leasable space.

“SM Prime believes that the current demand backlog for leases in several of its developments provides an opportunity for further mall expansion,” the company said.

SM Prime said in 2016, it planned to open six new malls, including SM City San Jose Del Monte with 114,186 square meters gross floor area, SM Commonwealth with 20,877 sqm, SM City Trece Martirez with 49, 498  sqm, SM Tuguegarao with 16,181 sqm, SM City Puerto Princesa with 58,168 sqm and SM Urdaneta with 58,168 sqm.

It will also expand two malls, including SM City Calamba and SM City Sucat with 62,000 sqm and 78,000 sqm of GFA, respectively while SM Molina and SM Sucat would be renovated.

SM Prime will also open three new malls in 2017, including SM Cagayan de Oro with 28,971 sqm, SM Caloocan with 102,086 sqm and SM Dagupan with 87,366 sqm.

SM Prime had 53 malls in the Philippines and five malls in China as of end-June.

It is the largest integrated real estate developer in Southeast Asia by market capitalization and the the largest shopping mall developer in the Philippines in terms of gross leasable space.

Share price of SM Prime ended the week at 19.84, down P2.51 from previous week’s close.

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DMCI gets clearance to sell P1-b homesaver bonds

By Jenniffer B. Austria | Sep. 25, 2015 at 11:25pm  [ manilastandardtoday.com]

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the P1-billion homesaver bonds of DMCI Project Developers Inc., the real estate unit of conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc.

SEC secretary Armando Pan Jr. said in an interview the corporate regulator approved DMCI’s issuance of deferred coupon-paying homesaver bonds with an initial offer of P500 million. The remaining P500 million will be issued within a year.

Homesaver bonds are interest-earning financial instrument that primarily targets retail investors who wish to set aside funds that may be used as full or partial downpayment to purchase units in any DMCI Homes development.

The bonds will be issued in three tranches. Tranche A bonds will have minimum investment of of P180,000, payable in equal monthly subscription payments of P5,000 over a period of three years.

Tranche B bonds will have a minimum investment of P300,000  payable in equal monthly subscription payments over a period of five years while tranche C bonds would be issued one-time with a minimum investment of P180,000.

Tranche A and tranche C bonds will both carry a fixed interest rate of 4.5 percent per annum while tranche B bonds will have a fixed interest rate of 5 percent per annum.

The investment scheme targets future home buyers.  A bondholder that will opt to use the proceeds from the bonds to purchase a unit from DMCI Homes will be entitled to discount.

The company hired SB Capital as the underwriter for the bond sale, with the offer period set on Sept. 23 to Nov. 5.

Other property developers such as Ayala Land Inc. and Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc.  previously issued similar financial saving instruments.

DMCI Homes earlier projected its net income to hit P3.6 billion for 2015, an 11-percent increase from last year’s P3.2 billion, as it plans to launch five new residential projects offering more than 3,000 units this year.

The projects to be launched this year include Ivorywood and Maple Place in Taguig, Bristle Ridge in Baguio, Valenia Residences in Mandaluyong and Lumiere Residences North in Pasig.

Reservations sales fthis year are expected to reach P22 billion, up from last year’s P20 billion.

DMCI Homes is allocating P5 billion purely for land acquisition and and up to P7 billion for development cost.

DMCI Homes also lined up nine new projects that will offer 10,700 units in the market in 2016.

DMCI is one of the leading conglomerates in the Philippines, with interests in construction, real estate, power, water, mining and toll roads.

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