Realty developer earmarks P8.3B capex for this year

PROPERTY developer Century Properties Group Inc. plans to invest up to P8.3 billion this year to boost development on its master-planned projects as well as to break ground on new ventures.

In a statement, Century Properties chief financial officer Jose Carlo Antonio said this year’s capital spending would benefit the company’s four ongoing master-planned developments, namely Century City in Makati City, Canyon Ranch in Cavite, Azure Urban Residences in Parañaque City and Acqua Residences in Mandaluyong City.

The 2012 capital expenditure budget of Century Properties—which made a backdoor listing on the local stock exchange through East Asia Power Resources Corp. last year—is set at a minimum of P7.3 billion and a maximum of P8.3 billion. The comparable figure for actual spending in the previous year was not given.

Century also plans to launch this year a 4.4-hectare residential project along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City to offer about 2,000 affordable housing units. This will be a mid-rise condominium development at the back of Ever Gotesco Mall offering units priced at between P1.5 million and P3 million.

This year, the property group also plans to begin construction in Makati of a lifestyle center that is expected to include a variety of retail offerings to complement its existing developments in Century City.

Upon full completion, Century’s four master-planned developments are expected to have 23 condominium buildings with 15,703 condominium and office units, as well as 955 single detached homes, for a total expected gross floor area of 1.18 million square meters.

For the first 10 months of 2011, Century grew its net profit by 447 percent to P781 million from the year before as the company unlocked values out of previously launched projects. During the period, revenues rose 93 percent year on year to P4.02 billion.

As an indicator of its future earnings growth, Century pre-sold P18.4 billion worth of units for the full year 2011, up 129 percent in pre-sales the previous year. On a unit basis, Century pre-sold 5,367 units last year, much higher than the 2,325 units for the full year 2010.

Century said it was able to attain the sales growth in large part due to its efforts to sell to Filipinos living overseas as well as to foreign nationals. In 2011, about 67 percent of Century’s pre-sales value was attributed to buyers from international markets.