Megaworld expects another banner year

MANILA, Philippines - The Megaworld Group of property tycoon Andrew L. Tan said it expects another banner year in terms of project launches and reservation sales on the back of the sustained property boom in the country.

Reservation sales are projected to hit a record P70 billion as the company starts offering 12,000 new residential units through 25 new project launches, company executives said yesterday.

“Based on our first half performance, we are well on track to hit our target of P70 billion in reservation sales for the year 2013,” Tan, Megaworld’s chairman, said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting.

The Megaworld Group is looking to launch at least 25 residential projects this year offering 12,000 new residential units, up from 10,000 units last year, Tan said.

In the first half alone, reservation sales jumped 27 percent to P38 billion. In 2012, the property group posted P63.5 billion in reservation sales.

“We see continued significant growth in the Philippine property sector, especially in the residential, commercial and office segments,” Tan said.

The Megaworld Group is benefiting from strong macroeconomic fundamentals, a low interest rate environment, continued influx of overseas Filipino remittances, and strong consumer sector, he noted.

The group is composed of three brands: Megaworld, medium-cost housing arm Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and affordable housing unit Suntrust Properties Inc.

Aside from the residential segment, Megaworld is also expanding its footprint in the office and retail space.

“We plan to double our rental income from P5 billion last year to P10 billion in the next five years,” Megaworld executive director Kingson U. Sian told reporters.

Sian added that the 170,000-square meter (sqm) retail space as of end-2012 will also be doubled in the long term. Megaworld had 500,000 sqm of office space as of last year.

Megaworld currently has a landbank of more than 250 hectares, of which 105 hectares are located in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, that will allow the company to develop more projects in the next 15 years, Sian said.