Century Properties banks on affordable housing to bolster 2024

MANILA  -The Antonio family’s Century Properties Group (CPG) is going all-in on affordable housing to sustain future growth following the full takeover of PHirst Park Homes Inc. from Japanese partner Mitsubishi Corp.

Century Properties, the builder of luxury projects such as Trump Tower Philippines and Essensa East Forbes in Taguig, obtained regulatory approval to acquire Mitsubishi’s 40-percent stake in PHirst.

“This pivotal move allows us to offer greater value to our stakeholders now that CPG is the 100 percent owner of a fast growing and high margin business,” said Century Properties executive chair and former ambassador Jose E.B. Antonio.

PHirst has rapidly overtaken other business units and currently contributes over half of Century Properties’ revenues.

It has successfully completed the launch of 15 projects this year.

In 2022, the developer established a wholly owned subsidiary, Century PHirst Corp., to expand its market presence by entering the socialized and economic housing and mid-income residential markets.

During a media briefing last week, Jose Marco Antonio, Century Properties CEO, told reporters PHirst would also make its debut in Visayas by the first quarter of 2024.

“We’re already going to expand our geographic footprint,” he said, adding: “There are many reasons why we believe [2024] is going to be a good year for our affordable housing business.”

Century Properties earlier announced nine-month 2023 profits of P1.3 billion, up more than 13 percent. This was also about 88 percent of its 2019 prepandemic profit of P1.48 billion.

“We are already reaching our prepandemic levels so our outlook is cautiously optimistic,” Antonio said.

He said they were more cautious on the outlook for their commercial business.

Antonio noted that office rentals were affected by the exodus of Philippine offshore gaming operators and the current hybrid work setup of several businesses. INQ