Vista Land and Lifescapes, one of the country’s leading integrated property developers and the largest homebuilder, is optimistic about prospects in the fourth quarter due to the increased confidence from Overseas Filipinos.
In a statement, the firm said it has also seen marked improvement of the foot traffic in its malls as people continue with their so-called revenged shopping.
Vista Land said sales from its residential projects have been on an increasing trend with Overseas Filipinos benefitting from the higher peso value of their dollar remittance. Overseas Filipinos takes up a majority of Vista Land’s buyers.
“We are excited going into the last quarter of the year with both our residential and leasing businesses continuing with its upward trend,” said Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr.
He added that, “We are slated to launch more projects this quarter as we take advantage of the renewed confidence from our Overseas Filipino buyers. Such confidence is also seen in the performance of our retail stores which translates to better mall revenues.”
The Company has launched P11 billion worth of projects during the first half of the year. These already exceeded projects launched in 2021.
Vista Land noted that it has zero exposure to POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) as its leasing portfolio banks on its residential communities that serves as catchment for its mall developments while BPO and traditional offices are the main tenants for its office space.
A majority of the Company’s Gross Floor Area of investment properties are community-based malls and commercial centers.
“Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, we have managed our leverage by reducing our capital expenditures and took advantage of our existing land bank for developments,” said Vista Land President and CEO Manuel Paolo A. Villar.
He noted that, “Our residential business is self- funding as 80 percent of our buyers are mortgaged finance while the expansion of our leasing business will be through our REIT offerings.”
“We also have diversified funding sources which is a factor to our liability management exercise. Our net debt to equity stood at or 0.88 by end of June 30, 2022,” the CEO added.
Villar said “Overseas Filipinos and our existing communities drive our residential and leasing businesses respectively and so far, we have seen this to continue.”
Vista Land said earlier that it will be launching more projects from its over 60 Vista Estate developments around the country.
Vista Estates is the Vista Land’s version of integrated development of horizontal and vertical residences, commercial spaces, office components and lifestyle options that is aimed for sustainability, innovation, lifestyle-driven, world-class and primed for growth.