Property giant Megaworld Corp. is raising capital spending by nearly 40 percent this year to mainly bolster its residential segment and capture the resurgence in demand in the postpandemic period.
“We have accelerated some projects to pave the way for opportunities coming from the pandemic recovery,” Megaworld chief strategy officer Kevin Tan said in a statement over the weekend.
The builder is allocating P50 billion in spending for 2022 versus P38 billion last year. The figure was also above the P48.2 billion investment figure deployed in the prepandemic period in 2019.
Megaworld noted in the statement that 75 percent of the 2022 spending would be deployed on real estate developments such as residences and mixed-use projects—segments that remained resilient despite the global health crisis. Real estate sales jumped 25 percent to P31.1 billion in 2021.
For the year, it plans to launch 14 new residential and commercial lot projects with a total sales value of P30 billion.
These new projects are in Maple Grove and Arden Botanical Estate in Cavite; Eastland Heights in Rizal; The Hamptons Caliraya in Laguna; The Upper East in Bacolod; Iloilo Business Park in Iloilo City; Capital Town in Pampanga; McKinley West in Taguig City; Alabang West in Las Piñas City; Arcovia City in Pasig City; Paragua Coastown in Palawan; Northwin Global City in Bulacan; and another one in Makati City.
Concept pioneer
The remainder of the capital spending budget would be used for “investment properties” and the acquisition of new land, Megaworld said.
Controlled by billionaire Andrew Tan, the developer helped pioneer the “township” concept for integrated residential, lifestyle and office communities when it built Eastwood City in Quezon City, Metro Manila in the late 1990s.
It plans to launch four additional township projects in 2022, covering around 500 hectares of land, it noted.
Two of the projects would be located in Southern Tagalog apart while the other two would rise in Metro Manila and Mindanao, respectively, the statement showed.
“This will bring the total number of Megaworld’s townships to 32 this year. We look forward to further expanding our portfolio of residential, office, hotel, and mall properties in these new areas that are considered among the key growth centers in the country today,” Tan said.