It has already created a lasting, beautiful legacy—one that has left a profound, far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of Filipinos across the country.
From the time it built its first home and created its first safe, beautiful community, to the time it started introducing innovations and enhancing the lifestyles of the modern urban dweller, Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. has been reshaping, transforming and improving lives for the better. It is, after all, a legacy centered on the well-being of Filipinos, with innovations reflecting the ever evolving tastes, preferences and needs of the different markets it has served over the years.
Brittany’s Crosswinds in Tagaytay
Camella Homes started offering quality homes in 1977
‘Fresh, vibrant, energized’
No doubt, Vista Land has proven to be a trailblazer in the local real estate industry, with each innovation steering the company to higher ground while further raising the bar in residential development. Fresh, vibrant and energized indeed best encapsulate Vista Land as a company, as it managed to sustain its relevance amid increasingly stiff competition and despite the fact that this publicly listed firm has been operating for more than four decades now.
“Vista Land & Lifescapes has been in operation for more than four decades and through these years, complacency is a word that we have kept out of our vocabulary. We belong to a very dynamic and very competitive landscape—the Philippine real estate industry. We look at each year as an opportunity to dream bigger and to achieve higher,” Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said in his message to stockholders.
“When we started, we only dreamt of providing homes to every Filipino. Now, we envision to provide a better way of life and our unique Vista Land standard of living through our integrated communities across the country. That is what has kept Vista Land going—to never be left out but instead be the frontrunner in providing for the evolving needs of our customers and country… Truly, more than the growth in terms of profit, what I am most proud of for Vista Land is giving Filipinos and all our other customers the chance to experience the Vista Land standard of living through our residential and commercial developments,” Villar explained.
Today, Vista Land is one of the country’s leading integrated property developers, having created pioneering masterplanned residential and commercial developments complete with fresh lifestyle offerings.
Its residential segment has an unrivaled nationwide presence in 147 cities and municipalities in 49 provinces across the country while its landbank is about 2,900 hectares, more than half of which is located within Mega Manila. Its commercial portfolio meanwhile included 31 strategically located malls, seven business process outsourcing (BPO) offices and 62 community centers—bringing the footprint of its commercial spaces to 1.5 million sqm as of end-2019.
Camella has expanded its scope to include the development of larger planned communities.
Vista Mall in Sta. Rosa, Laguna
Innovating through its brands
While remaining faithful to its original vision of providing a “future worth living and a life made beautiful for Filipinos”, Vista Land has grown by leaps and bounds over the last four decades, spinning off certain segments into strong individual brands that have since become market leaders in their respective categories.
Vista Land marked its beginnings with Camella Homes, which was built in 1977 to focus on the development of low-cost, standardized housing, primarily for homebuyers who rely on government-assisted financing. It has since expanded its scope footprint to include the development of larger planned communities in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.
In 1983, Communities Philippines Inc. was born to offer low cost residential property outside the Mega Manila area. It began with Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Pangasinan and has since expanded its presence to a total of 47 provinces to date. The following year, Brittany Corp. was established, then primarily for the company’s landbanking business. Eventually in 1993 Brittany started launching its own brand of luxury houses in masterplanned communities to cater to the high-end market segment in Mega Manila.
It seems that there’s no stopping Vista Land because simultaneously, as these existing brands were already developing a number of beautiful, masterplanned projects across the country, it continued to create new brands such as Crown Asia Properties Inc. in 1996, meant to serve the upper middle market housing segment in Mega Manila.
This was followed by Lessandra, which was launched in 2007, initially as a Camella home series that introduced two-story townhouses; Vista Residences, in 2009, which became the company’s brand for its mid-rise and high rise vertical projects; Lumina, in 2012, which was Vista Land’s line of mass-marketed housing communities meant to provide Filipinos with affordable yet quality homes; and Vistamalls Inc., in 2015, which was the owner, developer and operator of retail malls that target mass market retail consumers, as well as develops and operates business process outsourcing(BPO) commercial centers.
The most recent addition to Vista Land’s growing portfolio is COHO, its newest brand for beautiful, stylish, and high quality mid-rise residential condominium developments in highly urbanized locations. Launched in 2019, COHO offers young professionals a new generation curated lifestyle experience that seamlessly brings you closer to all your essentials.
Brittany launched its luxury homes in 1993.
Vista Residences is the company’s brand for mid-rise and high rise vertical projects.
Facing the future
It may be easy to think that a seasoned developer like Vista Land—whose fresh, innovative take on creating masterplanned developments have substantially improved the lives of many, while creating that distinct Vista Land standard—can finally take it easy. On the contrary, it continues to dream far and beyond its existing projects, with a promise of remaining committed to its original vision.
Apart from well-built homes and world class commercial developments that have added great value to its projects, Vista Land has created its own brand of projects—the Communicities, which are integrated urban developments that combine lifestyle retail, prime office space, university town, healthcare, themed residential projects and leisure components.
“We try to bring freshness, vibrancy, and energy every time we launch a project, deliver a home to homebuyewwrs, and open our malls to customers. We will continue to embody and solidify these concepts in the future through the widespread creation of Communicities across the country,” Villar said.
“We already have Vista Land Communicities in Metro Manila, other major cities and developing urban centers. I can’t wait for our countrymen in the second-and third-tier cities and municipalities to experience the Vista Land standard through our integrated community developments,” he concluded.
Crown Asia caters to the upper middle market segment.