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roperty developer PT Sentul City (BKSL) predicts that the new down payment regulation on housing and apartment loans will have no impact on its sales this year as the publicly listed company aims to reap Rp 650 billion (US$67.78 million) in net revenue by year-end, 42 percent higher than 2011.

Last May, Bank Indonesia (BI) announced a new policy, which sets the minimum down payment for mortgages at 30 percent of a property’s total value.

According to the central bank, the policy is needed to prevent a potential bubble in housing loans. Prior to the new regulation, down payments were set at 20 percent of the value.

However, since its implementation on June 15, the policy has not slowed Sentul’s sales, the company’s deputy president director on business development, Andrian Budi Utama, said on Friday.

In June alone, sales grew by 7.8 percent to Rp 59.93 billion from the previous month.

“We have seen no impact so far because our customers can pay the down payment in installments,” he said.

Sentul City offered the down payment installment scheme to buyers to allow them to pay the developer within three to six months.

According to Andrian, 35 percent of Sentul’s customers used housing loan programs to buy houses within its real estate complex in Sentul, Bogor. Around 30 percent of them made cash up-front purchases, while the remaining 35 percent paid in cash over several phases.

Between January and June 2012, Sentul saw its net profits jump 136.2 percent to Rp 144.16 billion, thanks to higher net revenues that soared more than twofold, to Rp 422.15 billion, compared with 2011.

A big chunk of the net revenues came from Sentul’s real estate segment, which made up 94.3 percent of the total figure, followed by its complex management segment.

In the first half of 2012, the real estate segment increased 169.3 percent to Rp 397.94 billion from the same period last year.

However, the company also recorded growing costs of revenues and sales expenses from January to June 2012.

Costs of revenues reached Rp 213.05 billion, increasing more than threefold from last year. Sales expenses climbed 32.1 percent to Rp 13.07 billion.

Sentul plans to build up to 304 new houses by the end of this year, a 26.7 percent increase from the number built last year. As of Sept. 2012, the company had a total of 8,500 houses in 41 clusters.

Sentul, which is located on the Jagorawi toll road south of Jakarta, sells their new houses for between Rp 1.6 billion to Rp 3.3 billion.

Sentul allocated Rp 300 billion for capital expenditure this year and had disbursed Rp 185 billion by July 2012.

As of June 2012, Sentul’s total assets amounted to Rp 5.83 trillion. Its liabilities and equities stood at Rp 1.09 trillion and Rp 4.74 trillion, respectively.

According to Andrian, the company has several other projects in hand to boost future revenue. It plans to construct an apartment building, a hotel and a condominium hotel (condotel) next year.

The apartment building will consist of 1,500 units, while the hotel and condotel will have 70 and 210 rooms, respectively. The total combined investment for the three projects was Rp 360 billion, Andrian said.

“We are certain the new down payment policy will not impact our apartment sales either, even though we have not yet determined a target for that. We will also offer a down payment installment program for our future customers,” he added.

Sentul’s shares closed at Rp 199 apiece on Friday, unchanged from the day before.