MANILA, Philippines – SM Prime Holdings Inc., the integrated property firm of the SM Group, will continue with its investment spree in the coming years as it pursues expansion in the Philippines and China.

SM Prime president Hans T. Sy said the company is earmarking P330 billion in the next four years or until 2018 to capitalize on the “very optimistic” forecast in the Southeast Asian region.

“We are committed to infuse additional investments over the next three years to spur impetus to achieve our goal to double our income by 2018,” he said.

For China alone, the company plans to spend P20 billion a year to expand its mall and residential offerings in the world’s second largest economy.

SM Prime has started construction of its first residential offering in China  through a condominium project catering to the middle-income segment of the market in Chengdu.

SM Prime chairman Henry T. Sy Jr. said the first phase of the condominium project would offer between 300 to 400 units.

“Right now it’s the best time to go in. A lot of our competition are not that aggressive because of some circumstances in China. We believe now is the best time for (us) to go in, to build condominiums,” he said.

For its mall development, SM Zibo soft-opened late last year, while SM Tianjin would likely open its first phase towards the end of the year.

This year’s Philippine mall expansions are geared towards the provincial areas as SM Prime would open SM City San Mateo in Rizal, SM City Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija and SM Seaside City Cebu.

This would be complemented by opening one Metro Manila mall – SM City Sangandaan in Caloocan.

SM Prime is also expanding existing malls SM City Lipa in Batangas and SM City Iloilo.

Combined, these malls will add almost 800,000 square meters of gross floor area to the company’s portfolio and increase SM Prime’s total mall space to 7.3 million square meters by end 2015.

This year, SM Prime has allocated almost P80 billion to support its aggressive expansion program.

SM Prime’s residential unit will launch at least five new high rise condominiums with about 11,000 units in total in the cities of Mandaluyong, Quezon City, Taguig and Tagaytay, and at the MOA Complex.

SM Prime will also add new towers in five existing projects that will be built to accommodate the increasing demand for housing by most Filipino households and young professionals.

The commercial property group of SM Prime will keep the growth momentum going, based on the continuing demand for better office facilities from the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.