Vista Land eyes P25-B new projects

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.