RP realty goes global

Overseas Filipino and foreign investors interested in Philippine real property will soon have direct access to local property owners and sellers with the launching last week of eCREBA, the first Philippine Real Property Supermall Online.

The multi-million peso joint venture project of Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association (CREBA) and GelSpatial Solutions Inc. (GSI), in cooperation with IBM, is aimed at penetrating a vast global market of some four million overseas Filipinos, foreign investors and expatriates, prospective retirees and tourists.

CREBA said that with its cutting-edge features and functions, the eCREBA Internet Portal is projected to bring in some P3.2 billion in foreign currency annually and speed up local development by showcasing to foreign direct investors and tourists the investment and tourism potentials of the various localities. It will also improve the financial position of government financing institutions and banks through the sale of ROPOAs, and project to the global business community a favorable investment climate in this country. Very soon, CREBA said, it will be the other Internet facility where real property buyers and investors worldwide will congregate.

The eCREBA features an extensive and powerful real property data base and search engine, including an online auction system, completed by a powerful marketing tool – an interactive online Geographic Information system (GIS) integrated with a computerized lot parcel mapping system.

Designed and operated by GSI‘s pool of geodetic engineering specialists, the online-GIS-lot plan/vicinity mapping system will provide prospective buyers and investors valuable geophysical, economic and regulatory information about the offered property and its local environment. This gives them a better insight to the property‘s investment value and potentials, without having to travel all the way to the Philippines.

Through electronic documentation and online payments mechanisms, linked with online banking systems, and protected by the portal‘s advanced security systems, sellers in this country, and overseas buyers will be able to consummate transactions, electronically sign contracts, and effect payments right in front of their computers.

Apart from these value-pack services, CREBA said, what really distinguishes eCREBA from ordinary business-to-computer (B2C) websites and portals is its ability to provide electronic transactions that "personal touch", which Filipinos known for their warmth, look for in any transaction.

eCREBA answers this need with such communication facilities as text chat, voice and video conferencing, which allow property sellers within the portal to exhaustively field inquiries by prospective buyers located anywhere in the world, and showcase their properties through virtual tours and other "personal" demonstration mechanisms.