Villar group-led property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. plans to scale up its shopping mall footprint to 60 locations—almost as many as the number of areas where market leader SM Prime operates at present—by the end of 2020.
This target will nearly triple Vista Land’s shopping malls from 22 at present.
“We remain bullish with the expansion plans of our leasing business through our subsidiary, Starmalls Inc., to add 38 more malls in the next three years,” Vista Land chair Manuel Villar Jr. said in a statement yesterday.
“We remain optimistic for the industry, given the strong demand for our commercial spaces and housing products, propelled by the stable growth in the disposable income, OF (overseas Filipino) remittances and sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals,” he added.
Consolidated capital expenditure budget for 2018 was set at P50 billion, a significant portion of which was allotted for the construction of malls to hit 1.4 million square meters in gross floor area (GFA) by the end of this year, revised from the previous target of 1.3 million sqm.
“Our company is poised to have another banner year in 2018 as our additional leasable spaces are now contributing significantly to our current financial results in addition to the sustained double-digit growth in our residential business. We are looking at a double digit (10-15 percent) consolidated net income growth this year,” Vista Land president and chief executive officer Manuel Paolo Villar said.
Vista Land has established its presence in about 133 cities and municipalities across 46 provinces and intends to focus on the development of “communicities” or integrated urban development combining lifestyle retail, prime office space, university town, health care, themed residential developments and leisure components.