8990 Holdings launches P1.1-B Gen. Santos project

By Doris C. Dumlao

MASS housing developer 8990 Holdings is breaking into the residential property market of General Santos with the launch of a P1.1-billion housing project, thus expanding its footprint in Mindanao.
The launch also marks the establishment of 8990’s seventh hub.
In a briefing on Tuesday, 8990 Holdings president and chief executive officer Januario Jesus Atencio said the company still had a lot of room to grow, noting it was in only seven of the country’s 14 regional growth centers.
Upbeat on prospects for the housing market, he said 8990 expected to sustain a growth of 20 percent each year.
In 2014, he said 8990 was on track with its guidance of generating around P8 billion in revenues, out of which 40 percent in margins would likely be unlocked.
About 8,000 residential units were completed last year by the listed company.
This year, 8990 is setting aside P3 billion for capital spending, mostly for land acquisition.
Meanwhile, the new project in General Santos came about following an opportunity to acquire an existing project started by a local businessman, whose core expertise is in tuna fishing and thus decided to divest from mass housing.
8990 acquired the project called “Rosalio Bayview” from Safi Land-GSC Development Corp.
8990 will initially build on the 18.82-hectare portion of SAFI’s 67.53-ha landbank, but it has the exclusive rights to acquire additional land in case of strong market demand.
The project will be renamed Deca Homes GenSan Bayview, which will start offering within this quarter 1,271 house and lots ranging from 80 sqm to 150 sqm as well as parks, playgrounds and other community facilities.
8990 plans to set aside about 20 percent of the development project for socialized housing units at 40 sqm each.
The price of each housing unit will likely range from P450,000 for the socialized segment to as high as P750,000.
The P1.1-billion project estimate refers to the sales value of new units to be brought to the market.
“GenSan is a progressive city with a big housing demand,” Atencio said.
“We are happy about opening our new branch in General Santos City because it allows us to expand our reach to new areas and extend our housing products and services to more working-class Filipinos,” he added.
The company has vowed to step up efforts to provide affordable houses to help the government address the massive backlog in housing units.