SM Prime Holdings Inc., the country’s largest property developer, said it plans to launch seven residential projects with total sales value of P42 billion this year.

SM Prime chief finance officer Jeffrey Lim said the company would unveil four to five new condominium projects this year and two expansion phases offering 12,000 to 14,000 units.

Data showed that at an average cost of P3 million per unit, total sales value of the projects could range from P36 billion to P42 billion.

Lim said the company was becoming more aggressive with new projects this year, after seeing steady demand for affordable high-rise residential projects.

“We see a lot of demand continuing like last December [when] we were able to book P4 billion in reservation sales,” Lim said.

SM Prime, through residential development unit SM Development Corp., launched two new residential projects and three expansion projects in 2014.

Capital spending of SM Development this year is expected to range between P15 billion and P18 billion.

The company also plans to launch its first horizontal housing development this year that would target families of Filipinos working overseas who would want lower-priced housing projects.

Lim said the company was looking for a property to acquire either north or south of Metro Manila for the first horizontal project.

“Our first horizontal project is not going to be significant in terms of total number of units, but we would like to try that area,” Lim said.

SM Development recently ventured into high-end residential development under SMDC Premier brand.  Its first project was Air Residences, located across Ayala Avenue Extension corner Yakal and Malugay Streets in Barangay San Antonio, Makati City.

SM Prime is also looking at launching its first residential project in China this year.

Lim said the company was now in talks with contractors that would build the condominium project.

“We are actually in the planning stage. We are starting to talk to contractors to see if we are able to get all this done, hopefully by the first half of the year,” Lim said.

SM Prime already has presence in China through its five shopping malls located in Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu, Suzhou and Chongqing.

Two more China malls are expected to open this year, including SM Zibo and SM Tainjin.