DMCI unit to launch P50B worth of residential units

Middle-income residential property developer DMCI Homes expects to bring to the Philippine market about P50 billion in new residential inventory next year while working on sustaining an annual growth of at least 10 percent.

This year, DMCI Homes—the property development arm of conglomerate DMCI Holdings—has launched about P30 billion worth of new products equivalent to some 10,000 residential units, DMCI Homes chief finance officer Joseph Ramil Lombos said yesterday.

For next year, DMCI Homes expects to launch 14,000 new residential units valued at P50 billion.

This will cover nine projects, compared to DMCI Homes’ usual annual launches of six to seven projects per year.

Most of the new residential projects will still be in Metro Manila, which offers the biggest market for medium- to high-rise homes, said DMCI Homes president Alfredo Austria.

The 10-percent annual growth in business targeted by DMCI Homes refers to growth in reservation sales, Austria said.

In the last two years, DMCI Homes shifted the bulk of its activities from medium to high-rise developments where revenue recognition was slower.  Austria said revenue growth may slow because of such strategic shift.

“Our strategy is to focus on improving quality, and we believe growth will follow,” Austria said.

DMCI also intends to expand to new locations and new market segments, Lombos said.

To date, the property developer focuses on middle-income residential condominium development priced between P3 and P5 million.

The property developer, however, will soon embark on more upscale projects and some mass housing projects.

For its upscale residential development debut, DMCI Homes is preparing to develop a 1.1-hectare seaside property along Manila Bay.  The company hopes to launch this project late next year, bringing to the property market around 300 residential units priced at an average of P10 million each and with a footprint of more than 80 square meters, Austria said.