Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc., the property development arm of the billionaire Manuel B. Villar Jr., reported core net income last year of P7.7 billion, 10 percent higher than the previous year’s P6.96 billion.
The company posted consolidated revenue of P29.8 billion, slightly higher than last year’s P29.63 billion. Rental income last year amounted to P13.7 billion while real estate revenues stood at P12.8 billion.
“We remain bullish with the industry for this year, especially with the level of our project launches last year. We have a pipeline of projects going into 2023 and we are slated to launch more projects this year as buyer’s confidence is back. We have seen sustained growth in overseas Filipinos remittance which is projected to grow by 4 percent this year,” Vista Land chairman Manuel Villar said.
According to him, demand from overseas Filipinos, one of the top buyers over the years, remained strong and resulted in the 12 percent growth in reservation sales of P65.5 billion in 2022.
Vista Land launched a total of P40 billion worth of projects across the country last year, which was four times higher than projects launched in 2021.
It sustained improvements in gross margin by 571 basis points to 57 percent due to price increases implemented and cost efficiencies realized.
“Our leasing business delivered in 2022 with a growth momentum given the return to ‘normalcy’ and the so-called revenge spending. The footfall of our malls has been improving and even exceeded pre pandemic levels during weekends and holidays,” Manuel Paolo A. Villar, company’ president and CEO, said.
He said the company has over 1.6 million square meters of gross floor area of commercial developments consisting of 45 malls, 56 commercial centers and seven office buildings.
“For our residential business, we have been aggressively launching vertical developments as we are maximizing the use of our prime land which have increased in value over the years. We ended 2022 with a land bank size of 2,902 hectares which is typically 8 to 9 years of development. With more vertical developments in our prime land, our land bank represents at least 27 to 30 years of development,” Villar said.
Capital expenditure last year reached P22.5 billion, mainly for construction and land development. Land acquisitions remained muted as the company looks to maximizing its existing land bank.
