Villar-led Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. said on Monday that it sees demand in its property segment to increase due to renewed spending confidence of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as the dollar appreciates.
“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,” Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said in a press release.
Vista Land said that sales of its residential projects have been on an increasing trend with OFWs benefitting from the higher peso value of their dollar remittance.
In the first half, Vista Land launched P11-billion worth of projects, already exceeding the number of projects it launched in 2021.
Meanwhile, the company saw an improvement in the foot traffic in its malls as people continued with their revenge shopping.
“We are excited going into the last quarter of the year with both our residential and leasing businesses continuing with [their] upward trend,” Mr. Villar said.
Vista Land said that it has zero exposure to Philippine offshore gaming operators and has instead been banking on its residential communities for mall developments and the business process outsourcing industry for office tenants.
“Majority of the company’s gross floor area of investment properties are community-based malls and commercial centers,” the company said.
“Our residential business is self-funding as 80% of our buyers are mortgaged finance while the expansion of our leasing business will be through our REIT (real-estate investment trust) offerings,” Vista Land President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Paolo A. Villar said.
“We also have a diversified funding source which is a factor to our liability management exercise,” he added pointing to Vista Land’s debt-to-equity ratio that stood at 0.88 by the end of June.
The company said that it will be launching more projects from its over 60 Vista Estates developments around the country.
Vista Estates is “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.”
On Monday, shares of Vista Land closed higher by four centavos or 2.50% to P1.64 apiece. — Justine Irish DP. Tabile