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ajor property group Ciputra Development saw its marketing sales up by nearly 30 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 1.74 trillion (US$134.41 million) in the first quarter, mostly backed by sales of landed houses.

Ciputra director and corporate secretary Tulus Santoso said the publicly listed developer managed to boost its marketing sales by around 28 percent during the first three months of the year from the Rp 1.36 trillion it pocketed during the same period in the previous year, thanks to a better market condition than in 2014, when elections created a tense atmosphere.

However, Tulus said, challenges were continuing this year as, up to the first quarter, Ciputra had booked only 16.41 percent of its targeted annual marketing sales of Rp 10.6 trillion.

'€œOur first quarter marketing sales were actually below expectations because we should have generated at least around Rp 2.5 trillion per quarter,'€ he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Monday.

'€œWe had to face several challenges in the first quarter, such as a high interest rate benchmark and currency volatility, as well as floods during the rainy season, which further affected our sales.'€

Around 69 percent of the first-quarter marketing sales came from sales of landed houses, while shophouses and offices contributed around 9 percent each. Apartment sales and land sales made up around 8 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Of the total figure, 40 percent came from projects in Greater Jakarta, while around 27 percent was from projects in other parts of Java.

Tulus said his company was confident that it would be able to meet its target later this year, especially from a number of projects it planned to launch in the third quarter of this year.

'€œWe have landed-house projects to launch in Malang [East Java], Samarinda and Jayapura. We might have to wait for the market to pick up before their commercial launches, but we hope we can start marketing the products in the third quarter,'€ he said.

'€œAs for the second quarter, we will focus on pocketing Rp 2.5 trillion in marketing sales, in line with our target.'€

This year, Ciputra aims to disburse up to Rp 1.5 trillion of capital expenditure (capex) to finance its projects.

The company plans to launch 13 new projects, including CitraGarden Hills Samarinda, CitraGarden City Malang and CitraLand Cileungsi in Bogor, West Java.

Ciputra '€” the holding firm of publicly-listed developers Ciputra Surya and Ciputra Property '€” saw its marketing sales reach Rp 8.6 trillion last year, meaning that the company hoped to see presales up by 23 percent this year.

Of its targeted marketing sales, around Rp 6.88 trillion is expected to come from its own projects, while the remainder is expected to come from joint operations and joint ventures.

Tulus added that the developer also expected 65 to 70 percent of the presales to come from landed-house sales, while the remainder would come from high-end residential projects.

Ciputra recorded an around 25 percent increase in its full-year revenue to Rp 6.34 trillion last year, with about 18 percent from its recurring income.

The developer'€™s net profit hit Rp 1.32 trillion, up by around 35 percent compared with the 2013 figure.