SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest integrated property developer, is spending at least P100 billion in 2017 and 2018 to support the company’s five-year development program.
SM Prime president Jeffrey Lim said in an interview following the annual stockholders’ meeting the company would invest at least P50 billion a year over the next two years to fund the construction of shopping malls and residential projects and land banking activities.
“SM Prime will continue to expand its mall and residential businesses which are the major revenue drivers. We will further reach out to provincial cities as an integrated property developer and as a strategic partner, given the tremendous opportunities in light of higher government spending on infrastructure development across the country,” Lim said.
Under a five-year roadmap covering 2014-2018, SM Prime plans to double its net income and revenues by building more malls, hotels, office towers and residential projects.
Bobby Cabrera
SM Prime this year is scheduled to open five new malls in the Philippines outside Metro Manila. These are SM CDO Downtown Premier in Cagayan de Oro, SM Cherry Antipolo in Rizal, SM Center Tuguegarao Downtown in Cagayan, SM City Puerto Princesa in Palawan and SM Center Lemery in Batangas.
SM Prime by the end of 2017 will have 65 malls in the Philippines and seven in China with an estimated combined gross floor area of 9.2 million square meters.
For the residential group, SM Prime is slated to launch this year 15,000 to 18,000 residential units in high-rise and mid-rise buildings, as well as house and lot developments.
To address an even larger market and cut across other segments in the housing spectrum, SM Prime is expanding its product line-up to develop more mid-rise buildings and single detached house and lots within the year.
SM Development executive vice president Jose Mari Banzon said the company this year would launch its first house and lot development in Pampanga.
The project, covering 30 hectares, will offer a total of 5,000 house and lot developments priced between P1.8 million and P2.5 million per unit.
The group plans similar projects in Cabanatuan and Urdaneta.
Banzon said reservation sales in the first quarter of 2017 jumped over 50 percent to P12.9 billion.