SMDC seen focusing on medium-rise projects

The SM Group’s residential property arm, SM Development Corp., aims to sustain its growth momentum by expanding into medium-rise building development, increasing its nationwide footprint and making more inroads into overseas markets.

The overseas expansion entails not only the establishment of offices in markets with critical mass of prospective overseas Filipino home buyers but also investing in markets with good prospects for residential property development such as China and neighboring Southeast Asian countries, SMDC vice chairman and chief executive officer Henry Sy Jr. said in a briefing on Tuesday.

Sy said SMDC would also broaden its product offering by launching a new residential housing brand priced at P1 million to P1.5 million. This brand is focused on medium-rise buildings catering to families. The pilot project for this will be in Fairview, Quezon City.

Sy said SMDC had also boosted its landbanking and purchasing operations. For this year, P20 billion worth of land in prime locations were acquired. At present, SMDC has an estimated land inventory of 50 hectares in Metro Manila alone.

“These are all in prime locations,” Sy said, adding that SMDC would eventually “cover the whole Philippines.”

In the meantime, SMDC president and chief operating officer Rosaline Qua said the new brand that would soon be unveiled by SMDC would be located a bit farther from central business districts.

Since last year, Qua said SMDC had also started marketing to overseas Filipinos, leading to the growth of its share in this segment to 35 percent this year, from 15 to 18 percent in 2011.

Qua said a lot of the unrecognized revenues from previous sales would be realized in the fourth quarter this year. This will allow SMDC to post a 10-15 percent growth in both net profit and revenue for 2012. She added that the 10-15 percent top-line and bottom-line growth trajectory could be sustained in 2013.

She said demand for SMDC units remained very strong, which would likely allow SMDC to exceed its earlier announced reservation sales goal of P29 billion for the year. As of November, she said the level had already hit P30 billion.

The company has brought 9,400 new residential units to the property market so far this year. This is estimated to reach 14,000 this year.

Qua said at least three projects will be launched next year.