Publicly listed property giant Agung Podomoro Land is upbeat that it can meet its Rp 6 trillion (US$457 million) marketing sales target this year despite unsatisfying first-quarter results and challenges stemming from upcoming tax regulations and weaker demand amid the domestic economic slowdown.

Agung Podomoro Land finance director Cesar M. Dela Cruz said the company was banking on marketing sales from its new projects that include Pakubuwono Springs apartments in South Jakarta; Orchard Park residential real estate in Batam, Sumatra; Podomoro City Deli superblock in Medan, Sumatra; Borneo Bay Residences superblock in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, meeting their targets.

The launch of the company'€™s industrial estate project in Karawang dubbed the Podomoro Industrial Park, with hundreds of hectares, would also go ahead as scheduled in November this year, he added.

'€œWhile our first quarter marketing sales were not very satisfactory, we are optimistic about catching up as most of our projects will start generating sales in the second half,'€ Cesar said during a visit to The Jakarta Post office on Wednesday.

During the first quarter of this year, the publicly listed developer only pocketed around Rp 940 billion in marketing sales, nearly half the Rp 1.8 trillion it booked during the same period last year and accounting for only 16 percent of its full-year target.

'€œWe maintain our marketing sales target of Rp 6 trillion this year [despite the challenges] of tax regulations and a weak economy,'€ said Cesar.

This year'€™s marketing sales target is unchanged from that of last year and down from the Rp 6.35 trillion in 2013 and Rp 5.8 trillion in 2012.

The overall domestic property sector'€™s poor 2014 performance due to muted demand as a result of the election year and a slowing economy '€” which touched a six-year low in the past quarter '€” continued on into the first quarter of this year, with additional pressure coming from planned new tax regulations.

The government is expected soon to lower the threshold for landed houses and apartments eligible for 20 percent luxury tax to Rp 5 billion from the current Rp 10 billion, which analysts say will impact developers'€™ pre-sales as customers might shy away from purchasing property to avoid ballooning taxes.

As marketing sales of new projects remain sluggish, property developers in the country are now getting a larger proportion of their revenues from recurring income that includes rental fees from malls and offices and income from hotels.

Agung Podomoro Land in the first quarter of this year saw its net profits nosedive 65.5 percent to Rp 101.8 billion from Rp 295.1 billion in the same period last year, as overall sales shrank 14.6 percent to Rp 995.2 billion and expenses soared 50 percent to Rp 341.8 billion. But income from rent and other sources rose 28.6 percent to Rp 384.2 billion from Rp 298.7 billion previously.

'€œWhile the contribution from property development declined as a result of slower revenue recognition, the contribution from recurring revenues continued to become more important, with 38.6 percent of total sales and revenues, up from 25.6 percent a year ago,'€ the company said in a statement.

Shares in Agung Podomoro Land '€” coded APLN on the local bourse '€” traded at Rp 400 on Wednesday, having risen almost 20 percent so far this year, easily outperforming the broader benchmark Jakarta Composite Index'€™s (JCI) 1 percent gain.

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