ORTIGAS Land Corp. is targeting to double its property business in the next five years after returning to pre-pandemic values in the third quarter as the market’s recovery increased take-up from buyers.
“We are very encouraged with the recovery this year. Overall, we are already in the pre-pandemic levels — all of our business segments: residential, office and the mall,” said Jose Emmanuel H. Jalandoni, president and chief executive officer of Ortigas Land, in a media briefing on Wednesday.
Asked about the company’s target, he said, “We want to double our business within five years, all of our business segments.” The target includes adding two more estates to its portfolio and doubling revenues in the next five years.
According to Mr. Jalandoni, what helped the market’s recovery are the remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFW), the contribution of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, and workforce demographics.
“I think the country is very resilient in terms of its economic drivers basically coming from OFW remittances. Pre-pandemic, pandemic, post-pandemic, it’s there and contributes at least around $30 billion every year in the inflows and the BPO also is at that level,” he said during the briefing.
“And we have to remember the demographics of the Philippines. I think 67% are below 30 years old, so we have the best demographics globally,” he added.
Mr. Jalandoni said he is particularly optimistic about the take-up of Ortigas Land’s latest two-tower offering, The Galleon.
The Galleon is a mixed-use development in the Ortigas central business district with various components, including residential, retail, and office spaces.
To date, Ortigas Land recorded a 70% take-up in the office segment of The Galleon and a 50% take-up in its residential segment.
For the retail segment, the company is looking for tenants that will complement the needs of the project’s residents, Mr. Jalandoni said.
“We’ll have to plan the tenanting of the retail area to complement the needs of our luxury market and the fact that there’s also an office building on the next tower, completes the whole positioning of The Galleon,” he said.
The project was launched in 2019, but its progress was hampered by the pandemic, moving completion targets to 2025 for the office and retail segments, and 2026 for the residential segment.
“We have internal [financial] targets. Overall, we are happy with our performance this year. We just came from a pandemic. The market reopened just this April, so people were not expecting that we would recover this fast,” he said.
Ortigas Land has four estates: Ortigas East, Capitol Commons, Greenhills Center, and Circulo Verde. — Justine Irish D. Tabile
