DMCI Homes eyes 20% growth

Malaya Business Insight
THURSDAY APRIL 14, 2011 PHILIPPINES

DMCI Homes is targeting a 20 percent growth rate or a gross sales revenue of P18 billion, according to Joseph Ramil Lombos, director for finance and operations.

This will be boosted by the launch of at least eight new projects located in key areas around the metro.

The main challenge for the company is to maintain a certain inventory for sales, eyeing available areas for redevelopment as potential additions to its land bank.

"We have identified certain properties including parcels of land formerly housing manufacturing buildings and warehouses as future sites of our projects. Since we have defined our focus towards medium-rise projects, we are looking for 3 to 5-hectare lands that can accommodate such type of development," Lombos said.

DMCI Homes’ core business of building medium-rise condominium residences sustains its strong run in 2011, buoyed by a period of exponential growth in 2010 and cementing its position as the industry’s unrivaled leader in the mid-rise segment.

Lombos said the company’s 71 percent jump in annual gross sales revenues of P14.7 billion in 2010 from P8.6 billion in 2009 is credited to DMCI Homes’ well-admired reputation and brand leverage for quality, safety, innovation, and a commitment to complete projects on schedule.

"DMCI is a Triple A builder-developer backed by its mother company, the DMCI Group, which owns a peerless reputation in the construction industry for more than 50 years. We are proud to say that we have proven ourselves in the industry and to our valued clients, whom we owe for our unprecedented income growth of more than 300 percent since we started 10 years ago," Lombos said.

On January 14 this year, DMCI Homes entered into a notes facility agreement with an umbrella group of banks and financial institutions that will finance land acquisition initiatives and corporate requirements.

The P5-billion, five-year fixed-rate facility will enable the company to beef up its inventory and supply more quality products to the consistently growing market demand.

One of DMCI Homes’ current projects that have registered outstanding sales in 2010 is Flair Towers, which will rise on a former manufacturing plant located near the Ortigas CBD and has been received well by the market prior to its official launch.

Marz J. Encarnacion, senior project development manager, said the location of Flair Towers, which also features other projects by major developers, will further confirm the status of DMCI Homes as a key player in the industry.

"We are confident of Flair Towers as our answer to the medley of residential developments in the area. Even if it’s a high-rise development, Flair Towers will be one of the least dense projects in the area. It will also be purely residential unlike the competition which will have commercial components where security and privacy will be a major concern," she said.

Other DMCI Homes projects include: La Verti Residences in Pasay which was declared 50 percent sold during its launching month alone; Siena Park Residences in Bicutan which has launched five buildings already since 2010; and Accolade Place in Quezon City – a boutique concept, single-building mid-rise condominium featuring more premium units, which was sold out three months after its launch.

DMCI Homes aims to be the industry’s leader in "genuine, resort-inspired daily living" through its medium-rise projects.

Lombos said the company is now looking into other types of developments such as the high-rise and the hybrid-type community which consists of both high-rise and medium-rise condominium buildings.

In the long run however, Lombos said that their core competence in the mid-rise segment will be sustained by imposing an inventory ratio of 70 percent for medium-rise developments, with the rest allocated for high-rise and other product types. Future expansion plans will include developments outside Manila such as in Laguna, Pampanga, Bulacan, and Cebu.