Eton eyes 20-percent sales growth this year

Lucion Tan-owned Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. expects to increase sales by a fifth this year — twice as fast as last year — as it builds new residential, commercial and office projects. "2010 is [expected] to be a very good year for the real estate industry," Eton President Danilo Ignacio said in a briefing on Tuesday, citing increased consumption brought by the national and local elections. The firm has eight projects this year consisting of one office, four residential and three commercial undertakings. Ignacio said the economy would likely grow faster this year as a result of the polls, as well as the continued increase in money sent home by Filipinos working abroad amid the global economic recovery. Under its residential segment, Eton is building the 40–storey Eton Tower in Makati, the 12-hectare Eton Centris at the corner of EDSA and Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, the 5.2-hectare West Wing Villas in Novaliches, and the 5.7-hectare River Grove in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. The company is targeting the upper-middle market for its condominium and housing projects. West Wing Villas, which is the third phase of the North Belton Communities, will feature three- to six-bedroom house and lot units. River Clove, meanwhile, features lots as big as 500 square meters. Under its commercial segment, Eton will soon start selling lots at Eton City, introduce a lifestyle and commercial strip at its 68 Roces project in Quezon City, and new event venues at its Centris project. Eton is also eyeing to build its second business process outsourcing (BPO) building at Centris. On Tuesday, Eton opened its Eton Cyberpod Corinthian, a four-storey BPO building at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue. The tenants include human resource service provider Northgate Arinso and BPO firm StarTek International Limited. Ignacio said Eton was also looking at building hotels in the future. “We’re conducting a study of hotel services. It’s a market that we can go into. It has to be in a central business district," he added. — GMANews.TV