Century Properties allots P10 billion for housing projects

MANILA, Philippines — Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG), the listed property company of the Antonio family, is pouring P10 billion over the next five years to expand its affordable housing portfolio.

Under its affordable housing brand PHirst Park Homes, CPG intends to launch 15 projects within the next five years, Century Properties Group  investor relations head Kristina Garcia said.

“PHirst Park Homes, Inc. aims to launch about 15 projects within the next five years with a total of roughly 33,000 units. Each site will be 15 to 20 hectares and it is currently in various stages of land banking. This is equivalent to around P57 billion in project sales value, with capital expenditures estimated at around P10 billion over the first five years,” Garcia said.

In May last year, CPG signed a joint venture agreement with Mitsubishi Corp. to establish PHirst Park Homes.

Capitalizing on the country’s demand for affordable housing, which has an estimated backlog of roughly 6.6 million units, the new joint venture company will pursue the development of projects of scale in key locations outside of Metro Manila.

CPG has been diversifying its portfolio, moving from just purely high end residential to other segments such as the first home segments and then hotels and other tourism related developments. It now has four sources of income — the vertical developments, affordable line, leisure and recreation, and tourism projects and the fourth is the commercial segment.

It recently unveiled its latest foray into the tourism and leisure segment, with Batulao Artscapes, a liveable art park and art community in Batangas, which will rise on a 142-hectare lot near the foothills of Mount Batulao.

The development will have designer homes with total sales value of P19 billion and created by some known architects and designers. The estimated total sales revenue for the entire 142 hectares is over P50 billion.   

CPG is also launching a 20-hectare development in Lipa, Batangas with 1,867 units valued at P2.8 billion.

As of December 2017, CPG completed 19 buildings with 72 percent of total buildings in vertical developments and 11,597 total units or 60 percent of total units in vertical developments.

For this year, CPG expects to book double-digit growth — mid to high teens, Antonio said.

Last year, the company posted a net income of P630 million, down  from P726.9 million in 2016.