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everal publicly listed developers are preparing for further expansion next year to take advantage of predicted higher demand for residential areas, offices and retail space.

PT Agung Podomoro Land, whose shares are traded on the local bourse under the code APLN, is aiming to acquire up to three more projects before the end of the year in an attempt to maintain its future revenue levels following the sale of most of its units.

“We are almost at final negotiations and hope to have at least one additional project within this month. Our plan was to have 13 projects and we already have 10 to date,” APLN’s vice president director, Indra Wijaya, said.

He declined to reveal the value of the three targeted projects. However, he did say that the projects comprised a residential apartment development on 2 hectares of land in South Jakarta, a superblock project on a 1-hectare plot in West Jakarta and another superblock development on 10 hectares of land in North Jakarta.

To date, APLN has concluded several acquisitions, including the takeover of an 80 percent stake in PT Dimas Pratama, which owns about 36.8 hectares of land in Batam, for around Rp 92 billion in November; an 85 percent stake in PT Tritunggal Lestari Makmur in September; a 51 percent stake in PT Bali Perkasasukses, which has 4.5 hectares of land in Badung, Bali; a 65 percent stake in PT Pandega Citraniaga, the owner and operator of the Plaza Balikpapan mall in East Kalimantan, in April; and a 55 percent stake in PT Sumber Air Mas Pratama, which owns 342 hectares of land earmarked to become an industrial area in West Karawang, West Java, also in April.

Meanwhile, PT Sentul City intends to introduce three new projects next year, according to chief operating officer and deputy president director Bob Mok.

“The three projects will account for around 15 hectares [in total],” Mok said, adding that the projects would cost more than US$30 million.

The new projects, Mok said, were expected to help the company meet the growing property demand. According to Mok, Sentul City had launched six projects this year and would only launch three next year as it did not want to “flood the market with too many products.

“Next year, we will have three new products because our current units are selling out fast,” Mok said.

Sentul City is the developer of a 3,029-hectare area in eastern Bogor. The company’s land bank area now totals about 1,614 hectares.

Mok said that Sentul City was also seeking opportunities to develop its business outside its current area, even possibly beyond Java Island.

Several other property developers are expanding their businesses to other parts of the country.

PT Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), for example, is planning to develop next year new residential projects in Surabaya, East Java, as well as Balikpapan and Samarinda in Kalimantan. BSD’s director, Hermawan Wijaya, said the company considered Kalimantan an area with good potential due to the growth in mining businesses in the area.

Besides expanding to other regions, BSD will continue to develop its existing projects in and around Tangerang.

Hermawan said that his company would be allocating around Rp 2.2 trillion in capital expenditure to develop a number of residential units, develop infrastructure and perform land acquisitions totaling about 100 hectares. “We will finance the spending with internal cash and funds from our sales,” he said.