Megaworld sees P70B in sales

Property developer Megaworld Corp., expecting demand for residential property to remain strong, sees its sales growing by at least 10 percent to P70 billion by the end of this year.

Megaworld said it was on track to meeting its full-year target as sales in the first semester rose by 27 percent year on year to P38 billion, boosted by reservation sales from various brands under Megaworld, Empire East Land Holdings and Suntrust Properties, Megaworld chair and chief executive officer Andrew Tan said Thursday.

“We see the continued significant growth in the Philippine property sector, especially in the residential, commercial and office segments, due to four main factors: strong macroeconomic fundamentals, a low interest rate environment, the continued influx of OFW (overseas Filipino workers) remittances and a strong consumer sector,” Tan said.

Sales last year amounted to P63.5 billion, the highest so far recorded by Megaworld but which it expects to exceed this year.

In a briefing after the company’s stockholders’ meeting, Megaworld executive director Kingson Sian said the group would launch 25 new projects this year, 14 of which were rolled out in the first semester. This will translate to about 10,000 to 12,000 residential units to be brought to the property market, Sian said.

Megaworld has about 250 hectares of land inventory, which would be good enough to sustain growth in the next 15 years, Sian said. The bulk of the inventory is located at Bonifacio Global City.

The 105-hectare BGC property includes the 34.5-hectare McKinley West project.

During the meeting, Sian assured stockholders that Megaworld—as the parent company of Empire East, Suntrust and Global Estate Resorts Inc.—would keep each property unit as an independent entity that would remain separately listed on the local stock exchange.