NEXTASIA Land is expanding its residential footprint in Southern Luzon with a planned 32-hectare (ha) mixed-use development in Alaminos, Laguna, near the corridor of the South Luzon Expressway Toll Road 4 (SLEX TR4), an extension project intended to improve connectivity between Sto. Tomas, Batangas and Lucena City and spur growth in surrounding towns like Alaminos.

The project will be partly funded by the property developer's recently secured P300-million unsecured corporate note facility. Under the plan, 10 ha will be allocated for up to 2,000 horizontal socialized housing units, while the remaining 22 ha are earmarked for townhouses and commercial space.

"With the 32 hectares, it's a mixed development of the socialized housing. Most likely, it will be under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) [by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.]. The socialized housing portion of it, I think it's around 10 hectares of the 32 hectares. Then, 22 hectares, that's yet to be decided," NEXTASIA Land President and Chief Operating Officer Dustin Y. Carreon said in an interview with BusinessWorld on Sept. 1.

NEXTASIA Land acquired the Alaminos property to help meet its socialized housing requirements under government housing rules, which under the long-standing balanced housing program require subdivision developers to allot a portion of their projects to socialized or economic housing as an alternative to other compliance options. Under Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) rules implemented in February, developers must secure conditional licenses to sell, increasing their upfront financial requirements.

The socialized housing units will be developed under the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) framework, the state-run fund that finances low-cost and socialized housing loans for its members. Mr. Carreon said development plans are still being finalized, with turnover targeted between the fourth quarter of 2027 and the second quarter of 2028.

"Other developers are forced just to pay the escrow, but eventually, they also have to look for a property that they have to buy. So, in our part, what I did is we purchased a property recently, which is Alaminos, to meet the socialized housing [compliance]," Mr. Carreon said.

The remaining 22 ha are planned to include townhouses built according to Batas Pambansa Blg. 220 standards, which set the benchmarks for economic and socialized housing projects, along with a commercial area of about one hectare.

The commercial component forms part of the developer's mid- to long-term plan to build a recurring-income portfolio, a strategy many Philippine developers have pursued to steady earnings against the cyclical nature of purely build-and-sell residential business.

"Mid- to long-term plan includes recurring income because a lot of our bank partners really encourage us to do it because it's not enough to have a build-and-sell or preset units," Mr. Carreon said, citing a similar 8,000-square-meter commercial component at the front of NEXTASIA Land's Barcelona development in San Pablo, Laguna.

For the next three to five years, the developer plans to remain focused on Southern Luzon, with no immediate plans to expand to the Visayas or Mindanao.

NEXTASIA Land has also said it is preparing for a potential initial public offering (IPO) and is undergoing pre-listing preparations through a Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. (PSE) program aimed at helping companies prepare to enter the public market. A listing, if pursued, would follow other property firms that have tapped the equities market to fund land banking and project pipelines.

"We've been doing the PSE handholding program since two years ago. But since the market is bad lately, we haven't done it yet. But it's in the pipeline to do an IPO," Mr. Carreon said. — Juliana Chloe A. Gonzales