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EMPIRE East Land Holding, Inc. said it may launch another horizontal
development within the next 12 months targeting a market that is
more upscale than its flagship subdivision in Laguna.
Anthony Charlemagne C. Yu, Empire East
president, said the company is buying land within the Cavite,
Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon (Cala-barzon) area for its next
project. The real-estate developer is eyeing properties in Cavite
and Laguna and is accummulating a landbank of 100 hectares in those
provinces.
“We have acquired substantial properties [al]ready
there but we’re still consolidating and we’re ready to acquire
more. It would be more upscale than Laguna Bel-Air. At the time we
were doing Laguna Bel-air, there was nothing in Sta. Rosa. But now
Laguna has become a growth area and we think that it is timely for
us to introduce a product that is more upscale than Laguna Bel-Air,”
Yu told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s stockholders
meeting.
Laguna has been more attractive to property
firms since the area’s development is more “planned” than
others within the Greater Metro Manila area. Even though a lot of
companies have begun their expansive developments in the Canlubang
and Sta. Rosa area, competition is not as tight elsewhere, he said.
“In fact we tend to complement one another
because all of us would be promoting a growth area. When everyone is
promoting a growth area, the price becomes more stable. And Laguna
compared to other provinces is more planned because it is the later
ones to be developed,” Yu said.
The middle-income developer is still upbeat
about prospects for this year despite inflationary pressures and
climbing interest rates. Since inflation has been caused by the
supply side and not because of increasing demand, Yu said the
company is positive that central bank will not jack up interest
rates rapidly, which may in turn hurt financing for homes.
“While the interest rates seem to be going up,
it is still much lower than what we used to [have]. The lowering of
interest rates is a very recent phenomenon, only two to three years
ago. Our in-house financing remains the same,” he said.
Because of this, Empire East still expects
demand for homes priced between P1.8 million and P3 million to
remain, thus its efforts to ramp up projects this year. The company
is building three new projects, including Pioneer Highlands in
Mandaluyong, Little Baguio Terraces in San Juan and San Lorenzo
Place in Makati.
For the next five years, Empire East is
earmarking P6 billion to P8 billion for its capital expenditures,
excluding land-banking for its ongoing projects. The amount would
come from the company’s internally generated funds in addition to
the P2.6 billion it earned from the preemptive rights offering it
conducted early this year.
Late last year, the company disclosed that its
profit would grow at a double-digit rate this year. Empire East was
fully consolidated into Megaworld Corp.’s accounts starting this
year as a subsidiary since the parent increased its stake from 45.2
percent to 59.8 percent. For the first three months, Empire East’s
net income inched up by 5 percent to P58.5 million. Megaworld
expects stronger earnings growth for the subsidiary this year on
account of its new projects.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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