Century Properties sets P7B capital expenditure in 2012

Azure Urban Resort Residences in Parañaque City: Six of nine buildings sold

MANILA, Philippines—The Century Properties Group (CPG) plans to double its capital spending in 2012 to P7 billion from a year ago as the company scales up its urban residential projects and expands prospective land bank.

CPG chairman Jose Antonio told reporters after the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday that the company would launch new towers in existing development projects such as Azure in Parañaque, Century City in Makati and Acqua in Mandaluyong.

“This year we’re targeting (to launch) roughly the same as last year,” CPG chief finance officer (CFO) Jose Carlo Antonio told reporters.

CPG launched 3,100 new residential units in 2011, worth around P16 billion. The CFO said the launches would still be mostly in the central business districts—Azure, Century City and Aqcua—plus an additional affordable residential project in Commonwealth, Quezon City.

About 2,000 new units will be launched from the Commonwealth project in 2012, with sales value of P4 billion-P5 billion, according to Antonio.

In Azure, which features a man-made beach club designed by American celebrity Paris Hilton, six out of nine buildings have been sold out, said CPG chief operating officer (COO) John Victor Antonio. Each building has about 550 residential units.

Roughly 4,000 residential units had been sold by CPG in Azure as of end-March. “We’re turning over the first two towers in June 2013 along with the beach and part of the amenities,” the COO said.

The capex budget of P7 billion for this year, nearly double the P3.6 billion actual spending in 2011, would be both for development and landbanking, the CFO said.

Upcoming projects in new locations such as Novaliches and Batangas are still under planning and will be launched in 2013.

The Antonios said demand for property projects have been “pretty robust.”

“We are the only company that focuses our efforts on international sales so we’re not competing against the many, many real estate companies (locally). We have offices in 20 countries,” said the CFO.

The COO said 67-70 percent of the company’s sales were generated overseas, particularly in Asia, United Kingdom, Middle East and America.

“We shift (to other markets). If there’s a slowdown in Greece, we shift, like demand is returning in America,” he said.

The officials said that for the company’s luxury segment, offshore demand has been growing, not just from the non-overseas Filipino market. The officials said Centuria Medical Makati and upscale residential project Milano, for instance, have attracted a lot of buyers from Singapore.

About a fifth of CPG’s portfolio is devoted to the upscale segment, defined as a market selling residential units worth P7 million and above, but the ratio is seen easing to 15 percent after the launch of the Commonwealth project.