ALI to launch 18 new projects

MANILA, Philippines - The upscale residential brand of property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is launching more projects this year as it aims for double-digit growth in sales and profits.

Ayala Land Premier (ALP) has programmed the rollout of 18 projects this year, which include the Luscara in Nuvali township project that has already sold P2.9 billion worth of lots, company executives said yesterday.

“We will launch around 18 projects this year, including phases. This accounts for new towers and brand-new projects, whether subdivision or horizontal,” ALP chief Jose Juan Jugo said in a briefing.

Last year, ALI launched around 15 residential projects under its high-end brand.

The aggressive introduction of new products to the booming property sector will push profits and revenues higher this year. “We finished last year with P25 billion in sales take-up and over the last three years, we’ve been growing at about 20 percent year-on-year so we are expecting to grow at least by double digits again this year,” Jugo said.

“We do not expect to grow any less than we’ve been doing in the last three years,” Jugo said, adding that ALP’s earnings hit P2.3 billion last year.

Around 75 percent of the 272 lots in Luscara, the fifth project of ALP in the 1,860-hectare Nuvali, has already been sold out.

ALP will start offering the remaining inventory in Luscara in the second half as the company has already sold P2.9 billion worth of lots, said Mayi Rodriguez, project development head of ALP.

“We are launching another project in Nuvali by the end of this year and we have a landbank in Nuvali that is more than enough for the next five or seven years,” Rodriguez said, adding that available space for new projects is around 500-600 hectares.

Abrio, ALP’s first project in Nuvali, was launched in 2007 at P9,000 per square meter (sqm). Luscara started selling at P17,000 to P22,000 per sqm in the first quarter.

“In the south [Luzon] alone, there is enough demand to do 600-700 lots a year. That is more than what Nuvali can offer so we have to do multiple projects at the same time,” Jugo said.

Other projects of ALP include the Ayala Westgrove Heights and the Ayala Greenfield Estates, both residential subdivisions.