LOW-COST housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. said it is exploring to enter the residential market in Vietnam, while branching out to other locations in the Philippines.
Company President Januario Jesus Atencio said the 8990, famous for its low-cost housing units but also targeting the middle-income segment of the market, were brought to Vietnam to explore the possible investment in the mass-housing project.
Atencio said that if they decide to expand to the Southeast Asian nation, it could be through a partnership with a local company who knows how to deal with domestic issues.
In the Philippines Atencio said it will add three new locations this year, including General Santos, Zamboanga and Bacolod.
Atencio said the company already acquired a 100-hectare property in Bacolod from one of the landed families in the city for P300 million, or P300 per square meter.
“It will be used purely for mass housing although we may also include a wakeboard park since it is big enough,” he said.
He said the firm’s wakeboard park normally requires 6 to 12 hectares to develop. Some of 8990’s facilities, however, was able to lure professional wakeboarders, which, in turn, can increase the value of the land.
He did not divulge the details of the two other project sites.
For the year, the company is allocating a capital expenditure of P8 billion, some P3 billion of which will be used to increase its land bank that currently stands at 385 hectares, while the rest will be operational expenditures.
Atencio said the company will target to have at least 500 hectares in land bank as it will purchase land in Davao, Zamboanga, Pampanga and Bacolod.
The company said it will construct some 11,000 units for the year, with Luzon growing 44 percent, the Visayas at 31 percent and Mindanao at 25 percent. 8990 will launch nine new projects this year that will provide 4,486 additional units to its inventory with a total value of P4 billion. As of end-December, the company has a total of P13.68 billion in collectibles under its in-house financing that carries interest rates of 9.5 percent, with a collection efficiency of 96 percent.