VISTA LAND ROLLING OUT P42B WORTH OF PROJECTS

Villar-led property developer Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc. (VLL) plans to bring to the market P42 billion worth of real estate projects this year, upgrading its target from P30 billion, factoring in stronger-than-expected market demand.

With the planned increase in project rollout, VLL is also increasing its capital spending this year to P35 billion compared to the previous year’s P30 billion.

In the first quarter, VLL launched new projects amounting to about P12 billion.

VLL also reported a 12percent year-on-year rise in reservation sales of residential units in the first quarter.

“2017 promises to be another banner year for Vista Land. We are pleased to have been able to achieve solid growth over the last decade and should have no problem continuing the trend this year,” Vista Land founder and chair Manuel Villar Jr. said.

“This year, we will have very fast growth in the commercial side, and we will have high single digit growth in the residential business, and probably next year, [we] will do double-digit [growth] in the residential business,” Vista Land president and chief executive officer Manuel Paolo Villar said in a briefing yesterday.

With a total land bank of 2,600 hectares in 117 areas, VLL is optimistic in expanding its business into multiple platforms. The company is expected to be more aggressive in housing development, as well as in shopping mall and office property development.

VLL plans to widen its reach vertically and horizontally. For the leasing business, it’s targeting a gross floor area (GFA) of one million square meters by yearend. By 2018, the company targets 1.3-million square meters of GFA.

Overall, the Villar group’s footprint in over 200 cities and municipalities around the country could be its platform for different developments, whether housing, shopping malls, memorial parks or hotels, said. “We are looking at the logistics part of it because we are also have a convenience store group,” the elder Villar said.