By Miguel R. Camus @miguelrcamusINQ Visayas and Mindanao-focused Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) will accelerate project launches by over 50 percent to nearly P30 billion this year as it starts to make inroads in Luzon, home to half of the Philippine population.

The Soberano family-led developer said on Thursday it would start building up its Luzon landbank in 2023.

"We are finally setting our sights on Luzon in the next two years," CLI chair and CEO Jose Soberano III said in a statement on Thursday.

In 2022, CLI rolled out nearly 5,000 units across 16 projects worth P19.36 billion.

It sold 74 percent of the projects by the end of the year amid strong demand for housing.

"Our robust 2022 performance is a testament to our growing commitment and leadership in the VisMin (Visayas-Mindanao) region," Soberano said.

"We have been recording double-digit growth across all segments since our 2017 [initial public offering]," he added.

This comes as CLI booked a record high net income of P3.17 billion in 2022 or a gain of 32 percent.

The normalized net income took out a one-time tax adjustment due to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, it said.

CLI revenues also jumped 40 percent to P15.7 billion last year.

Real estate sales revenue grew 40 percent to P15.44 billion.

"This was mainly driven by significant construction progress, as construction hit full swing across all CLI project sites in 16 key cities in VisMin by end-2022," the developer said.

Its emerging hotel business also posted a revenue growth of 71 percent to P83 million.

Meanwhile, CLI announced plans to open three hospitality projects this year: The Pad, lyf Cebu City at Base Line Center and Citadines Bacolod City. INQ