Vista Land upbeat on 2021 business prospects

Property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes has reported signs of recovery in both its residential development and leasing businesses with the gradual reopening of the economy following months of tough lockdown measures.

As such, the company views 2021 with optimism despite the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

“While COVID-19 continues to impact our performance, both on our leasing and residential businesses, we also have seen a number of positive signs of recovery since the reopening of the economy last June. The upward trend of our reservation sales were sustained and are now at 70 percent of pre-COVID level. This prompted the company to restart launching residential projects in our existing land banks,” Vista Land Chair Manuel Villar Jr. said in a press statement.

Since 55-60 percent of Vista Land sales are coming from overseas Filipinos, Villar said the resiliency of inbound remittance supported the sales rebound.

In the first 10 months of the year, remittances from overseas Filipinos amounted to $24.6 billion, down by only 1 percent year-on-year.

“As for our leasing business, our operational gross floor area has increased to about 95 percent as government-imposed restrictions started to ease and we are experiencing over 50 percent of pre-COVID level foot traffic. System-wide occupancy rate is steady at 89 percent,” said Villar.

Vista Land president and chief executive officer Manuel Paolo Villar said the continued price increase for house and lot offerings in provincial areas would benefit the company.

“Vista Land is the biggest home builder with the widest geographic presence among others. We generate over 50 percent of our real estate revenues outside the Mega Manila area,” he said.

Based on data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, prices for single detached/ attached housing units in the third quarter have increased by 7.4 percent while residential properties outside the National Capital Region went up by 6.4 percent from the same period last year.