Top exec says AboitizLand to focus on going national

Andoni Aboitiz (fourth from left), AboitizLand president and chief executive officer, leads government, AyalaLand, and AboitizLand officials during the June 6, 2016 lowering of the time capsule of the Gatewalk Central project in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City. The event is part of the groundbreaking activities of the 17.5-hectare mixed-use project. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Half of real estate firm’s P5-B capital expenditures this year allotted for Luzon projects

Going national is the thrust of the Cebu-based real estate developer AboitizLand this year.

“We are going to focus on Luzon for now. But obviously, our plan is to go national. Our goal is to be a national player,” said Andoni Aboitiz, AboitizLand president and chief executive officer, during a media roundtable on Friday last week.

Aboitiz said half of the group’s allotted P5 billion capital expenditure this year will go to projects in southern and northern Luzon, whose market has been penetrated by real estate giants, yet still has space to accommodate AboitizLand.

Aboitiz said the P5 billion capital expenditures will include land acquisition costs, start-up expenses for projects they are going to launch, and for the completion of existing projects.

He said that this means they need to participate and play in growing cities such as Davao and Iloilo as well, but there are no concrete plans yet at the moment.

He, however, said that the P10 billion allotted initially to fund the joint venture project with Ayala Land this year, is not included in the P5 billion capital expenditures.

Aboitiz was referring to the Gatewalk Central, which is AboitizLand and AyalaLand’s joint venture mixed-use project in Mandaue City.

The project was launched last June 6.

Aboitiz also said that after the joint venture with Ayala Land Inc., they are also looking at possibilities to venture into partnerships with other developers and focus on master-planned villages and house-and-lot-type projects to address the middle class needs in Cebu and Luzon.

He said that they are open to partnerships with other developers, but there aren’t really any discussions right now.

“The partnership with Ayala made sense for many things. One of them really was our strategy not to get into condominiums anymore, and do it with a developer who is much better-equipped than we are,” he said.

He said their thrust for their next partnership with other developers is to put up more residential areas with retail and commercial spaces as well as one-day offices “so people can live and work in a limited radius rather than travel far distances especially when there is traffic.”

Aboitiz said that for AboitizLand’s middle-end projects, these may cost from P2.5 million to P4 million.

The property firm also has known residential developments which are Priveya Hills, Pristina North and Almiya.

Aside from residential projects, Aboitiz said the group will also focus on industrial ventures such as developing Lima Land which the company acquired two years ago to expand its industrial portfolio.

On partnerships with foreign firms, Aboitiz said they are still not looking outside the country for partnerships, but admitted that their firm may partner with foreign companies in the future especially in the light of the Asean economic integration.

He added that the Asean integration will not have a significant impact on the real estate industry as it is only meant to ease the movement of goods and services from one Asean nation to another.

“With real estate, you can’t really move land and houses. The effect will be minimal,” he said.

Aboitiz explained that each country in the region has a unique set-up culturally and economically.

“For example, if we look at Indonesia, their living styles and habits are very different from ours. We would need a local partner to understand it. We can’t simply transplant what works in Cebu and put it in Jakarta,” said Aboitiz.