Chinese property firm enters Phl market

MANILA, Philippines - A major property developer in Nanjing, China aims to be an active player in the booming Philippine real estate market.

Filipino-Chinese firm Hundred Lake Development Corp. said it has sealed a deal to buy portions of property of listed real estate developer IRC Properties Inc. in Rizal province.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, IRC Properties said it has received the partial payment for the sale of its 183,729 square meter property worth P87.27 million. Hundred Lake committed to pay a P50-million down payment upon the execution of the contract to sell, with the balance payable upon the transfer in the name of Hundred Lake of the title to the property.

Hundred Lake is a 60-percent Filipino and 40-percent Chinese-owned corporation. Its Chinese partner is part of the Lek Yuen Group of Nanjing, which claims to be among the top five property developers in Nanjing.

“This transaction is our initial step in the Philippines, which is now gaining more attention as an attractive investment area,” said Lek Yuen Group executive vice-chairman Jane Yan.

The Philippine property market is on a roll, driven by across the board growth in the residential, office, commercial and tourism segments.

“The IRC Properties’ area in particular is notable to our group due to its size and greenfield nature, making it suitable for scaleable property development,” Yan said.

One of the key projects of Lek Yuen Group is the 667,000-sqm Baija Lake urban development that now has more than 100,000 residents. It is also the group behind Southwest Nanjing’s Nanshan Mountain Resort that has 3,000 villas, large eco-farms and leisure resorts.

IRC Properties owns about 2,200 hectares of land in Binangonan, Rizal. It also owns Apo Island, an 896-hectare island located in Coron, Palawan.

The property firm behind the Sunshine Fiesta community project earlier said it is in talks with major and foreign firms for potential mixed-use, township and community developments.

IRC Properties, formerly Interport Resources Corp., was incorporated in 1975 primarily to engage in the acquisition, reclamation, development or exploration of land, forests, minerals, oil, gas and other resources. It pursued oil exploration activities and drilled two wells in Southern Mindoro and the Sulu Sea areas before focusing on property development starting in 1978.