Real estate continues to be strong amid crisis

Despite the negative prospects of some economists in the county’s real estate industry, most stakeholders in the sector remain bullish that a positive outlook can still be expected this year amidst challenges of the global recession.

“The market in the Philippines is still showing positive signs compared to other foreign markets abroad despite the global recession that is why we real estate practitioners still maintain a positive outlook for this year,” explained realtor Ricardo N. Inting, the chairman of the board of Land Asia Global Properties Network Inc., the biggest realtor in Cebu.

He said that in the country, Cebu specifically is showing strong signs of economic activity that is eyed to fuel the further growth of the real estate sector in the area.

“Cebu has salient features and advantages over other places as big projects still keep pouring in such as call centers, retirement villages, and even new lifestyle facilities. The rapid growth of Cebu as a major destination in the country is also keeping the real estate sector afloat amidst negative outlooks brought by the economic crisis,” said Inting.

He said that compared to Metro Manila which has already reached a saturation point with the oversupply of properties, the real estate market here in Cebu still has ample room for more real estate investments.

“Cebu still have two to three years before it gets an oversupply of properties so this is why real estate investors continue to be enticed to come to Cebu to do projects,” he said.

Meanwhile, Land Asia’s VP for marketing and communications Joseph Y. Sison said that contrary to what most people believe, real estate continues to thrive amidst the negative prospects of the economy this year.

As a matter of fact, as marketing arm of most major real estate developers in Cebu and in Manila, they have noted that new projects still continue to pour in this year.

Sison shared that this month, many of their clients will be launching new projects in Cebu like Bloomstar Property Development Corp.’s Villa Vicenta Subdivision, Commonwealth Estate’s new middle-end condominium project called La Guardia Flats, and F3 Properties, Inc.’s high-end subdivision San Fermin Place in Mactan.

“Despite the fears caused by the crisis, developers continue to develop new projects this year so there is no such thing as a slowdown at the moment,” he pointed out.

Sison revealed that as early as January this year, they have already managed to generate P15 million sales which is equivalent to 13 units and this goes to show that many people are still investing in real estate as a hedge for the crisis.

“The industry is not totally problematic, there is no slowdown and despite the fears about on-going financial crisis, people continue to invest. In this time, people with money either save more or spend on something with tenfold returns and they realize that buying properties at this time is a wise investment,” said Sison.

He also said that at this point, developers have even increased their units’ prices to about 10 percent more because they believe that the crisis will only make people keener on investing in real estate.

Sison shared that last year, their company reached P590 million sales, which decreased over last 2007’s P634 million.

But he stressed that this is not due to the global crisis but because of the issue on licensing of agents that resulted to limited sales because unlicensed agents had limited exposure.

He also said that employees from private companies mostly from contact centers topped their buyer’s profile last year and this year they continue to see this segment growing along with the continuous growth projection of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in the country.

For this year, Land Asia is targeting to reach sales of P1.2 billion, which is an average of P100 million per month target and Sison said that they are optimistic to achieve this goal considering the bullishness of the market to invest in real estate at these times. — Rhia de Pablo