CapitaLand Ltd. (C31.SG) said Friday its first-quarter net profit climbed 41% thanks to healthy home sales, higher shopping-mall revenues and one-off gains from asset divestments.


The Singapore-based property developer remains “cautiously optimistic” about Singapore’s housing market following recent government curbs that have slowed home-price growth, it said in a statement.


Net profit for the three months ended March 31 was S188.2 million, up from S$133.2 million a year earlier, the developer, Southeast Asia’s largest by market value, said.


Revenue for the quarter rose 3.2% to S$661.9 million from S$641.1 million.


In Singapore, CapitaLand said it notched strong residential sales in the January-to-March period, but expects home prices to moderate further in the coming months.


Regulators imposed tough new curbs on Singapore’s property market in January, trying to contain prices that have been on the rise since the global financial crisis despite repeated government interventions. Those measures, the seventh set of curbs introduced since September 2009, helped rein in price growth in the first quarter to its slowest pace in a year, although prices still rose to new records.


Nonetheless, “with strong economic fundamentals and policies to grow the population, the long-term outlook remains positive as there is sustained demand for new homes,” CapitaLand said in the statement.


Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@dowjones.com


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