Due to Economical factor: Demand for columbarium units soar

After seeing a strong demand for columbarium units, memorial park developer Acrissor Development Corporation, invested into building a 1,620-unit columbary facility.

Angelicum Garden of Angels' Jun S. Yu said that economical factors are one of the reasons why Filipinos have now started to embrace cremation process when a loved one has to go, rather than go for the traditional ceremonies.

Compared to lot memorial units, columbarium is much cheaper in cost, while the cremation process itself is only pegged at an average of P25,000 to P30,000.

"Cremation has now become lucrative, it reduces the burden of high-cost during interment," Yu said adding that for an average Filipino alone, decent casket would already cost him P60,000 to P70,000.

Cremation has become a trend now in the Philippines, although this process has been adopted by the ancient forefathers. Thus, the demand for columbarium units in the Philippines has grown tremendously, he said.

Angelicum is one of the pioneering high end memorial parks in Cebu to introduce this alternative way of providing resting place to loved ones.

He reiterated that economical factor has also pushed the cremation process to become a trend in the conservative Philippine society. Yu, said for only over a P100,000 expense, the family can already put their loved one in a decent memorial sanctuary.

The multi-million pesos Columbarium facility of Angelicum Garden of Angels is a five-story structure surrounded in a garden, which will provide a theme park ambiance, rather than a memorial park environment.

He said the increasing cost of land-based memorial units in Cebu, which assessment value is growing at an average of 25 percent to 30 percent is one of the reasons why there is now a growing demand for columbarium units.

Angelicum Garden of Angel's, is a 7.5 hectares memorial park, located in Mandaue City. Its top of the line memorial lot product would cost about P2 million, an equivalent cost to a middle-range house and lot unit.

According to Yu, most of the park's buyers are serious investors, who wanted to grab the lower cost of memorial units today, anticipating the high assessment value in the next few years.

He said majority of its buyers are 30 years old to 40 years old. These are mostly investors, he reiterated.

He added that the market has now evolved and already become liberated when it comes to preparing memorial units. Unlike before that this kind of preparation was considered "taboo" especially for the Chinese families.