Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), the high-end real-estate development unit of conglomerate Ayala Corp., is expecting a stronger second half as indicated by an uptick in sales starting February this year, after months of uncertainty which pulled first-quarter sales by a tenth to P7.41 billion.

All said it is seeing a rebound particularly in its high-end unit Ayala Land Premiere, when reservation sales breached the P1 billion mark in June, double the figure reported in January.

The developer also noted a similar trend in uptakes in ALI's middle-income and affordable units under Alveo Land and Avida Land, respectively. Reservation sales are considered a primary demand indicator by the real-estate firm.

In a recent interview, ALI president Antonio Aquino said strong sales were mostly buoyed by domestic buyers, while explaining that the firm coped with months of uncertainty by controlling supply.

"We have a fairly healthy level of inventory today," said Aquino, who noted that the firm will raise its inventory to match the market's demand.

Owing to the uptick, the firm said it will fully spend the rest of its 2009 capital budget in the second half of 2009. The publicly traded firm has allotted P17.4 billion in capital expenditures for this year, of which only half has been spent as of end of June. ALI added that a portion of budget, or nearly a fifth, will be allotted for landbanking purposes.

The capital expenditures will be partly funded through a seven-year P1-billion loan from Land Bank of the Philippines, which the firm finalized in April.

ALI is also one of four firms eligible to bid for the development of Bonifacio Global City's North Bonifacio lots owned by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, which set the deadline for the proposals on August 14 this year.

In the first three months, ALI posted a net income of P907 million, 50 percent lower than the P1.83 billion it reported in the first three months of 2008.