Filinvest Land Inc. is more than doubling its capital expenditures this year to almost P7 billion from P3.3 billion last year to fund landbanking and the development of 13 projects.

In an interview after the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting Saturday, FLI president Joseph Yap said the higher capex and new projects are expected to boost sales and earnings growth for residential projects to 15 to 20 percent this year.

“Basically, it is a combination of launching of new projects, especially our mid-rise building projects which have been accounting for growth,” said Yap noting that this does not yet include recurring income from commercial and office rentals.

Yap said FLI’s first quarter sales are up 26 percent. “I think, in general, we will probably see a first quarter that is better than last year,” he said but noted that sales will not immediately translate to profits.

He noted that sales last year were affected by the global crisis given that their customer base consists of people who do not have much disposable income and were forced to postpone purchases of houses. About half of the firm’s residential sales are to overseas Filipino workers.

Yap said the firm will spend about P1.8 billion for landbanking, P500 million for the completion of buildings in Northgate Cyberzone, while the balance will be spent for project development this year.

For this year, the firm is planning to build medium rise buildings, two to three socialized housing projects, new affordable condominiums as well as house and lot packages worth below P1 million.

He said the capex will be sourced mostly from internally generated funds although FLI may also push through with the sale of its retail bonds in the second half of the year.

“We are also studying the possibility of doing a REIT (real estate investment trust), The company has been in discussion with some investment bankers. As of the moment, there are no final plans yet,” said Yap.

He added their since the draft implementing rules and regulations for REITs have just been released by the SEC, their legal department is still studying it.