AYALA LAND, INC. (ALI) said leasing will likely be the most important driver of its earnings growth this yr, as the corporate goals to deliver over 250,000 square meters (sq.m.) of latest gross leasable area (GLA).
“We are going to start with sweating existing assets,” ALI President and Chief Executive Officer Anna Ma. Margarita B. Dy said during a media briefing on Friday last week.
“A lot of our renovated malls and hotels are actually operational, and the main focus shifts to consumer delight and operational excellence.”
Ms. Dy added that renovated malls are expected to deliver a 15% to twenty% earnings boost from higher rents.
These include the completion of 5 hospitality assets, including Seda Abreeza, Centrio, BGC T1, Holiday Inn Makati, and Lagen.
The corporate said its flagship malls’ reinvention will wrap up by the tip of June 2026 — mid-year — with the reopening of Glorietta and Greenbelt. This follows the December 2025 completion of Ayala Center Cebu and TriNoma.
“Alongside extracting value from recently accomplished assets, we’ll proceed expanding the leasing platform. Leasing will account for a bigger share of capital deployment as we scale malls, offices, and hospitality inside our estates,” she said.
For 2026, ALI plans P70 billion to P80 billion in capital expenditures (capex), with about 38% directed to leasing projects.
“About 38% of [the capex] goes to be for our leasing projects. So, the balance is basically for residential and whatever land acquisition that we still should be paying for,” Ms. Dy said.
In 2025, the corporate spent P92.9 billion in capex, with 38% directed to property development, 29% to completing and expanding the leasing portfolio, 18% to estate build-out, and 15% to ongoing land acquisition commitments.
Ayala Land posted consolidated net income of P39.1 billion for full-year 2025, up 38.7% from P28.2 billion in 2024, driven by its leasing and hospitality segment and gains from portfolio management.
Leasing and hospitality revenues increased 7% to P48.7 billion in 2025 from the P45.6 billion in 2024, with growth across all segments.
Shopping mall revenues grew 5% to P24.2 billion from the P23 billion in 2024, as a consequence of higher occupancy and merchant sales. Office leasing revenues reached P12.2 billion, while hospitality revenues rose 9.3% to P10.6 billion from P9.7 billion, boosted by the Latest World Makati Hotel acquisition.
“So, for 2026, we expect regular property development revenues and retaining our primary position, a double-digit growth in leasing revenues with the most important ever delivery of leasing gross leasable area,” Ms. Dy said.
The corporate said it’ll add over 200,000 sq.m. of latest GLA this yr, and greater than 70,000 sq.m. of office space in Evo City, Arca South, and Gatewalk.
“In 2026, we’ll open over 200,000 sq.m. of latest retail GLA, the most important single-year addition in our history. We began with the opening of Arca South Mall last weekend and saw over 200,000 visitors in only the primary weekend,” Ms. Dy said.
The primary phase of Ayala Malls Arca South, in Taguig, combines indoor retail spaces with outdoor areas, green spaces, and basement parking accessible through nearby transport links.
“It’s really a soft opening. We’ll do a grand launch in April,” Mariana Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Malls president and ALI head of the leasing and hospitality group, told BusinessWorld. “We were very pleasantly surprised by the interest. It’s almost 90% leased out for the primary phase.”
Ms. Zobel de Ayala said the second phase of Ayala Malls Arca South is predicted to open by October this yr.
“We’re also really excited because Makro, a food market from Thailand, will likely be opening,” she added.
In September last yr, Ayala Corp. signed a cope with Thai retailer CP Axtra to relaunch Makro grocery stores within the Philippines through its subsidiary ACX Holdings.
Makro, a Dutch international brand, first entered the Philippine market in 1996 through a three way partnership amongst SHV Holdings N.V., Ayala Corp., and Sy-led SM Investments Corp. Ayala later sold its 28% stake to the SM Group, which rebranded Makro outlets in 2009, and SHV divested its Asian Makro operations, now operated by Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group through CP Axtra. — Alexandria Grace C. Magno