Vista Land ventures into office space dev’t

MANILA, Philippines - Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., the country’s largest homebuilder, is venturing into office space development with a P1.5-billion tower in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), the newest central business district in  the metropolis.       

The office building marks the creation of Vista Hub, a new product of the Villar family’s real estate unit catering to the    booming business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, company officials said.       

Vista Land chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said the property firm will put up a 15-story BPO building in BGC with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 20,000 square meters (sqm).      

 “If that turns out to be a success, we will build more in the area,” Villar said. “We have an existing joint venture that we changed to develop as a    BPO,” Vista Land controller Cynthia Javarez added.       

The construction plan has been completed and is just awaiting Philippine Economic Zone Authority certification for tax incentives, she said.       

Vista Land allotted P1.5 billion for the BPO building located adjacent to Essensa residential tower in upscale McKinley Hills in BGC.   

Construction will start in November and will be completed in the second quarter of 2016.       

“It’s the flagship BPO under Vista Land so we want to build it in a prime area,” said Nikki Cachuela, head of Vista Land’s commercial BPO division.       

The Villar family develops office and leasing space through listed company Starmalls Inc., which is into shopping malls and BPO buildings.       

Aside from the BGC office building, Vista Land is also putting up a Vista Hub in the 1,500-hectare Vista City in southern Metro Manila.      

 Villar said Vista Land will build eight BPO buildings with a total GLA of 290,000 sqm in a 10-hectare lot that will be called Vista Hub, an    entire district devoted to business and commerce along Daang Hari    South.

Vista Land targets to attract BPO building locators as it beefs up its recurring income portfolio.   

Revenues of the country’s information technology and BPO sector grew 17 percent to $15.5 billion last year, up from $13.2 billion in 2012, as more companies chose the country to locate and expand their operations, data from the Information Technology Business Process Association of the Philippines showed.               

In the first quarter, Vista Land’s net income improved 11 percent to P1.49 billion from P1.32 billion while reservation sales rose 10 percent to P12.94 billion as revenues climbed 12 percent to P5.44 billion.       

The homebuilder will launch P28 billion worth of projects this year. In the past 38 years, the property firm has completed more than 250,000 housing units in 31 provinces and 6 cities and municipalities around the country.