P100-B worth of property inventory seen from ALI

Property giant Ayala Land Inc. plans to bring to the local property market about P100 billion worth of fresh property inventory this year, marking a 64-percent increase from the previous year, following a banner performance last year.

“Overall, we feel good about 2016 and we’re optimistic about 2017,” ALI president Bernard Vincent Dy said in a briefing.

“The property market will continue to be be buoyant,” Dy said, adding that while interest rates were expected to rise this year, a gradual increase would not curb demand for property.

Last year, ALI posted  gross sales of 108 billion from the sale of 19,000 units.  This brought down inventory age from 18 months to 10 months which Dy said was “a bit on the low side.”

As such, ALI’s new property launches worth P100 billion planned this year will mark a big increase from the P61 billion launches last year.  Over 90 percent of the new launches will consist of residential products, reflecting ALI’s optimism on this segment.

ALI plans to launch 18,000 residential units this year, more than double the 7,300 units it launched last year.

After four straight years of decline, property developers in Metro Manila sold more residential condominium units to homebuyers ahead of completion in 2016 even as they curbed pre-selling inventory to the property market, property consulting firm Colliers Philippines said.

Property developers sold a total of 38,800 residential units in Metro Manila via pre-selling last year, about 25 percent higher than the volume sold in 2015.  —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA