Vista Land sees another banner year

MANILA, Philippines - The holding firm for the frontline real estate business of the Villar family expects another banner year in 2013, with revenues and profits seen to grow double digits on strong housing demand from overseas Filipinos.

This as Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. is also looking at Public-Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects to expand the income base and fasttrack the development of its existing landbank.

In a briefing, Vista Land chief financial officer Ricardo B. Tan Jr. said the company targets to grow its profits and revenues by 15 to 20 percent this year.

Vista Land reported a 24-percent surge in profits to a record P4.37 billion last year from P3.52 billion in 2011.

Revenues climbed by a fifth to P16.33 billion from P13.51 billion as reservation sales picked up 31 percent to P40.09 billion from P30.5 billion.

Vista Land CEO Manuel Paolo Villar said the property firm exceeded its target of P4.2 billion and P16 billion in profits and revenues for 2012 respectively.

“Our strategy is paying off handsomely and given the strength of the property market, particularly housing, we will continue to focus on bringing the Camella brand to families around the country,” Villar said.

Vista Land is banking on continuous demand from families of Filipinos living and working overseas, which account for 60 percent of its real estate revenues.

“The market demand for housing, particularly for Camella in the provinces, continues to be robust and we do not see any risk of a slowdown in that segment,” Villar said.

Communities Philippines accounted for 36 percent of the revenues, followed by Camella (34 percent), Crown Asia (12 percent), Brittany (13 percent) and Vista Residences (five percent).

Moving forward, the Villar family plans to expand its income sources through the PPP.

Villar said the company is interested to join the bidding for the construction of the 27.5-kilometer CALA Expressway that will extend the Manila-Cavite Coastal Expressway.

“We will probably be involved in consortiums...in some of the projects, foreign involvement is helpful and is necessary because they have the technology and certain specific technical requirements,” he said.

Given numerous toll road projects up for bidding by the government, Villar said around 700 hectares of Vista Land’s 1,962 hectares of landbank will benefit through access.

Outside Metro Manila, Vista Land will expand in at least 10 cities and municipalities every year.