Robinsons Land to acquire more land for gov’t housing project

Anticipating stronger government support for housing development and buyer financing, Robinsons Land Corp., the real estate development concern of the Gokongwei family, will continue to acquire substantial tracts of land suitable for residential development through joint venture arrangements with land owners.

In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, RLC said its housing division intends to beef up its existing landbank of 111 hectares by acquiring 50 to 100 hectares of land via joint venture to lessen capital requirements.

RLC, through wholly-owned housing subsidiaries Robinsons Homes Inc. and Trion Homes Development Corp., plans to pursue new joint venture opportunities in the major regional capital cities delivering affordable lot-only packages with housing options.

These subsidiaries are currently focused on pre-selling two products in the price range of P500,000 to P1.5 million per package: mid-cost housing selling residential lots with the option for housing and socialized and economic house and lot packages.

Among the projects in the pipeline and in various stages of development are Robinsons Highlands in Davao City; Robinsons Vineyard in Dasmariñas, Cavite City; Grosvenor Place in Tanza, Cavite; Robinsons Homes East and San Lorenzo Homes, both in Antipolo City; and Southsquare Village in General Trias, Cavite.

Robinsons Highlands, Robinsons Vineyards, Grosvenor Place and Hillsborough Pointe are projects of RLC in partnership with the landowners and are expected to be completed one after another from 2003 to 2005.

For the Grosvenor project, RLC has tied up with EEI Realty Corp. to develop a 72-hectare commercial/residential subdivision in Cavite. The company has completed its land development on the first 13 hectares of land.

RLC’s housing and land development subdivision has six in-house sales groups with a total salesforce of 1,200 and also enlists the services of 12 agencies to market its portfolio of lots and housing units for sale. These sales personnel and agencies are paid on a commission basis.

Total revenues of the housing subsidiaries for the fiscal year 2001 amounted to P305.2 million, accounting for 10 percent of the total revenues of RLC.

As for its high-rise building business, RLC will focus on the development of affordable residential condominiums with a price range of P1.8 million to P3.5 million for the middle-income market.