Local Property Sector Boom Seen to Continue

The local property sector is nowhere near any bubble with residential and office rental rates and their property values in Metro Manila’s major central business districts (CBDs) are still likely to rise within the next 12 months on buoyant demand, property experts from Colliers International said. In a briefing on Friday, Colliers Philippines associate director Julius Guevara said 5,900 additional residential units were likely to be completed each year, bringing the residential stock in major CBDs to 64,000 units by end-2014, 38 percent higher than the level in end-2011.

While the property was inherently cyclical, Guevara said in an interview that there were ways to avoid forming a bubble. Apart from closely monitoring market trends, he said the strategy of pre-selling a critical mass before starting construction was a big help to developers. “It’s less speculative if they do it based on demand,” he said.

“Not all cycles end in bubbles,” said Colliers Philippines managing director David Young, noting that at the moment, property supply and demand were moving in the same trajectory. He said there was no cause for alarm “unless we see a significant surge in construction levels where suddenly demand is not there to fill that space up.”

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer 09.03.12

SM Eyes Small Family-Owned Grocery Stores

The SM Group is looking to acquire small family-owned groceries/supermarkets based in the Visayas and Mindanao as it aims to further widen its geographic footprint and maintain its dominance in the retail industry.

On the sidelines of a forum sponsored by ING yesterday, SM Investment Corp. (SMIC) chief financial officer Jose T. Sio said the group is beefing up its retail portfolio through acquisitions. While he refused to name the target companies, Sio said the SM Group might close some deals before the end of the year.

SM’s food retail business of 140 outlets as of end-June 2012 include 34 SM Supermarkets, 73 SaveMore stores and 33 SM Hypermarkets. Aggregate earnings of the retail group, consisting of a chain of department stores and a separate chain of supermarkets and hypermarkets, amounted to P2.7 billion in the first half this year, up 7.8 percent from the same period in 2011. 

Source: The Philippine Star 09.01.12

DMCI Homes Sees Growth in Rental Market by 2nd Half of 2012

As time goes by, more and more residents are looking for a home that offers convenience in location and most would trade location but end up on a cramped condominium. Property giant DMCI Homes did just know what to do through understanding the market and providing the essentials by offering them quality home rentals for resort style living. Today, Start-up families and Expats are realizing that a DMCI Homes development satisfies their needs.    

Alfredo R. Austria, president of DMCI Homes, always quotes “Anchor your service on the value proposition of our company.” This statement has guided the Leasing Department to realizing its mission of providing convenient, value added leasing services to clients who expect a good and sound return of investment.

“In the thriving industry of real estate, leasing takes part in keeping the business in balance. Rent or Lease is an add on flavor, a spice in the field of real estate business as it provides income to unit owners who choose homes to be their investments. In my 16 years of experience in the industry, I have seen the crunch and punch cycle of the property market and indeed, competitors have widely increased nationwide, and the challenge is how to achieve our mission. As I would share to the whole department, a unit rented must equivalent to Two Happy customers our tenants and our unit owners.”, Rida Ferrer, DMCI Leasing Manager added.

The presence of Business Process Outsource (BPO) strengthens the market of residential leasing, where a significant part of it completes the over- all composition of tenants acquired by the Leasing Department: 59% local residents and 41% foreigners. Others are derived through referrals.

The DMCI Homes Leasing Services (DHLS) Department has uncompromisingly shown a great number of increase on its lease performance for the 1st quarter of 2012. An average of 259% increased in rental activity from last year exceeding its target at an average of 104%. More contracts will be expected to close on the nearing months, as DMCI Homes opens new units for rent in Quezon City (Accolade Place – P. Tauzon), Maricielo Villas – Las Piñas, Sienna Park – Parañaque City and High- Rise Buildings, Rawai and Kamala at Royal Palm Residences – Taguig City. Also, by the month of September to December, the number of short term tenants will rise due to vacationers and balikbayans who will be staying for the holidays. With this anticipation at hand, DMCI Leasing has expanded offices at Acacia Estates - Taguig, Tivoli Gardens Residences - Mandaluyong, and Ohana Place - Las Piñas, to better provide faster services to unit owners.



Accolade Place Building Facade and Amenities (Actual)



Siena Park Residences (Actual Community Shot)



Maricielo Villas Clubhouse (Actual)

Vacationers nowadays prefer apartments for rent as retreat homes under short term lease instead of booking in hotels. With condominiums, they get lower rental cost as compared to hotels, and yet with DMCI developments, they also get both affordability and resort style living as they select from their favorite destination.


DMCI Homes aspires to expand its network, as influenced by the growing number of clients, both tenants and unit owners. With this objective, comes its first Leasing General Assembly last June 22, 2012 in approach to empowering its quality people, and giving recognition to leasing officers, leasing specialists, and agents with outstanding performances. Highlighted are the benefits of being an accredited agent/ broker of DMCI Homes Leasing Services as it opens doors to residential leasing of 23 developments and as- to- date 12 upcoming projects, plus, selected leasing of commercial and office spaces that offers promising commissions.

DMCI’s first commercial center, whose construction is in full swing, is situated at Acacia Estates. SaveMore will be operating its supermarket, and surrounding it are restaurants, alfresco, and other shops that will complement the needs and lifestyle of the Acacia community. With the availability of a commercial complex, it will surely be an attraction to more future tenants in Taguig City.

Also, located in the area is Mahogany Place III, the latest addition to DMCI Homes exclusive subdivision developments. Its access to Bonifacio Global City and Makati, makes it a sure provider of the conveniences present in- city living. Another set of new house and lots are for lease at Mahogany Place III. You can choose from a single detached, duplex, and townhouse units.

Moreover, DMCI Homes Leasing Services Department in its constant desire to improve services has recently tied-up with the country’s biggest communication company, SMART communication, as they provide SMART INFO Board, a broadcast facility where clients can now receive regular updates on the status of their units and other leasing activities through their mobile phones for FREE.

Also, DHLS has released its first community directory, last May 2012, where residents of DMCI Homes communities acquire free subscription of the said magazine. The first issue was successful and was well appreciated by unit owners as it provided information on deals and services they can avail within the community. With its success, a quarterly release of the magazine will be provided.

Source: Yahoo News,  August 22, 2012

Avida Towers Davao: Avida's First High-rise Project in Davao

Avida Towers

AVIDA Land, a fully-owned subsidiary of Ayala Land Inc., is earmarking around P800 million to P1 billion for its first-ever high-rise condominium project in Davao City for middle-class families. Avila Land head of VisMin Project and Strategic Management Group Pol Tanco, during the launch of its first tower on Saturday at the Royal Mandaya Hotel, said their condominium development project is composed of two towers and will be built along C.M. Recto St.

The project, called Avida Towers Davao, will bring a new concept of condo living among the people of Davao City, just like in Metro Manila. The first tower will have 23 floors and will house a total of 431 residential units. The second tower, meanwhile, will be a much taller infrastructure with a total of 28 floors and 621 units. Tanco said both state-of-the art towers will feature three unit classifications such as studio type units with 22 to 25 square meters (sqms), one-bedroom units with 37 to 42 sqms, and two-bedroom units with 58 sqms. He added that the first tower will have four levels set aside for the parking space with a capacity of 170 parking units.  The target completion date for the first tower will be in 2015, since the period of construction will last about three years.

Source: SUN Star Davao 08.15.2012

Robinsons Land Shifts Focus to Commercial Projects

After slowing down on residential construction, Gokongwei-led property firm Robinsons Land Corp. is recalibrating its growth strategy and beefing up its landbank to build a strong pipeline of work in the commercial segment.

“We’re more aggressive now. We’re embarking on landbanking to ensure sufficient land capacity for development,” said Frederick D. Go, president of RLC.

Go said the company remains in talks with Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada for the latter’s $2-billion casino project in the PAGCOR Entertainment City along Roxas Blvd. RLC is considering running the retail and hotel operations for Okada’s project.  

RLC was inherently cautious about the short-term outlook for the residential real estate market and would rather focus on expanding its shopping mall, office building and hotel operations, which account for more than 65 percent of the group’s total revenues.

RLC is building seven new shopping malls and expanding three of its existing malls to capitalize on strong consumer spending and a growing business process outsourcing industry. Of the seven, three will be built this year while the other four will rise in 2013.

The expansion of the retail portfolio will increase the group’s total mall leasable area to a little over a million square meters (sqm) in two years.

RLC recently completed two mall expansion projects in Tacloban and Bacolod.

Together with the two expansion projects, RLC’s total gross leasable area (GLA) is seen to reach 911,000 sqm at end-September this year. In 2013, RLC will add another 100,000 sqm to bring the total GLA to 1.01 million sqm.

For the office segment, RLC is completing Cyberscape Alpha and Cyberspace Beta in Ortigas by mid-2013.

As for its Go Hotel chain, the company is looking to build four this year in line with plans to hit a 30-branch network over the next five years.

Source: Philippine Star 08.22.2012

The Proscenium by Rockwell Land

Soon to launch this year is Rockwell Land's project, The Proscenium, whose design team is headed by renowned Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott. A 3.6 hectare prime property on the northeast of Rockwell Center will be developed with additional 5 residential towers, 15,000 sqm of retail, 10,000 sqm of office and a 700-seater performing arts theater.

The Proscenium Aerial Location from Google Earth


In ancient Rome, the stage area in front of the scaenae frons was known as the “proscenium”, meaning “in front of the scenery”. In the Roman theater, no proscenium arch existed, in the modern sense. However, Roman theaters were similar to modern proscenium theaters in the sense that the entire audience had a restricted range of views on the stage–all of which were from the front, rather than the sides or back. - Wikipedia

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