THE GROUP of mall czar Henry Sy has decided to do something about their upbeat outlook on the property market and hiked its budget next year to between P6 and P7 billion for land acquisitions and the construction of new malls.

In the past years prior to its launch of Mall of Asia, the country’s largest mall, publicly listed SM Prime spent an average of P5 billion for new malls every year, SM Prime Holdings Inc. executive vice president Jeffrey Lim said after the Philippine Real Estate Investment Trust Forum at the Makati Shangri-La late Friday.

This year, the company will spend some P1 to P1.5 billion for land acquisitions while the rest of the budget will go to the development of new malls, said Jose Sio, SM Prime chief finance officer.

Malls that are scheduled to open next year are now being constructed in Taytay, Rizal, Muntinlupa City, and Bacolod City. SM Bacolod is expected to open in the first quarter of 2007.

The projects are being financed with a combination of borrowings and internally generated cash.

On October 20, the Sy family expects to open a third mall in China. The 170,000-square-meter establishment in Chengdu province will have tenants such retail giant Wal-Mart and Taiwan-based department store Laiya.

The Sy family’s investments in China are personal ventures and are not under the publicly held firm SM Prime.

The family hopes to build one mall a year in China. Currently, it is looking for a location for a fourth mall outside of major cities.

Sy’s family has expanded quietly in China, opening its second mall late last year on the southeast coast of one of the world’s largest economies.

The second mall also occupies an area of 170,000 square meters and is located in Jin Jiang City in Fujian province.

The Sy family opened its first 120,000 sqm shopping mall on Crossroad West in Xiamen in 2003.

SM Prime on the other hand has opened five malls in Luzon this year: SM Lipa in Batangas, SM City Sta. Rosa, SM City Clark, SM Mall of Asia and SM Supercenter Pasig.

Counting the new establishments, SM Prime’s total malls now number 27.

The newly opened malls also expanded the company’s gross floor area to 3.6 million sqm.