Ayala Land sees rebound, readies new condos for mid-income buyers
Real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. is again launching residential projects in its core middle-income market after seeing a recovery in demand, which has brought down excess inventory or ready-for-occupancy (RFO) units to a comfortable level.
In a press briefing, ALI President and CEO Anna Ma. Margarita Bautista Dy said, “We were really focused on selling RFO... if you look at the take up, you'll actually see that our take up has been increasing.”
“So, this is what will feed our revenue and our bookings in the coming quarters. Safe to say, this will improve in the second half. That's what we think, given all the indicators,” she added.
Dy noted that, “I know this is just a one-quarter change, but from quarter two to quarter one, our core residential sales grew. Sales grew by 40 percent so we had quite a large jump in our core sales in the second quarter. This will feed into our revenue recognition towards the latter part of this year.”
Dy said that, with the improvement in sales of the core segment of ALI’s residential business, inventory levels for this segment are now down to 17 months' worth of sales.
“As far as the core is concerned, we're finally at the level we're comfortable... to launch again. And that's why, on the second half, I think we'll have three launches for core, and one of them is our first brand-, new, non-sequel launch for Avida in Katipunan,” she said.
This will be ALI’s first project in Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, and Dy said, “We feel that the market is now ready, and we're ready. Our inventory levels are now manageable.”
“Hopefully this will mean we can start launching new projects again, because it's also important for us to have refreshed stocks, new stocks,” she added.
Starting with the Katipunan project, there will be some upgrades in Avida’s product, which will be very different from its previous offerings to cater to what the customers want to see.
Thus, while ALI’s residential launches in the first half were mostly for the premium market, about a third of the 22 projects to be launched in the second half will now be for the core segment while two-thirds will still be premium.
Of the 22 residential projects, two-thirds will be vertical or high-rise projects while one-third will be horizontal developments.