Casa San Miguel: near, affordable

HOMEBUILDER Good Luck House Inc. offers its own answer to the demand for affordable housing in the heart of Metro Manila: Casa San Miguel, a project that combines affordability with convenience. The vision of Casa San Miguel is to give people the feeling of living in a safe and secure community where everything is within easy reach. “Our vision is to give our buyers the best, most liveable home possible within a certain price range,” says Peter Angliongto of Good Luck House Inc., developer of Casa San Miguel. A BA Economics graduate of the University of the Philippines with an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance, Angliongto has been developing affordable housing since 1993, but his projects were located mostly in Davao. Eventually, he realized there was a greater unserved need for affordable housing in Metro Manila, and started doing more real-estate projects here to respond to that need. But Metro Manila, with its bigger population and busier lifestyle, presented a different challenge. Shelter is one of the most basic needs of man. Everyone dreams of owning a house. But most people—especially in Metro Manila—end up renting because real-estate prices are too steep. For a studio or one-bedroom condo, prices can run up to a million pesos or more. The entire Casa San Miguel project is surrounded by a perimeter wall with a guarded gate to assure the security of unit owners. Once completed in 2010, there will also be landscaped walkways and a play area for children. Centrally located in Pasig, a few meters from the Pasig wet market and Pasig Cathedral, Casa San Miguel is a complex consisting of three four-story buildings designed by the well-known engineering firm of Aromin and Sy. Each building has an average of 24 to 28 units per floor. Each 26-square-meter loft-type unit costs about P600,000 and is delivered to the buyer already finished, with painted walls, light receptacles, vinyl flooring and a kitchen counter with a sink. The community is accessible to 24-hour public transportation. The MRT is a short jeepney or FX ride away, making it easy to get to work or school from early in the morning till late at night. Those with their own vehicles can use available parking areas that are included with the development. “The housing industry here is much more challenging. You need to be more in tune with the market, which demands certain types of products and schemes. For example, people want to be near where they work.” As a housing development, Casa San Miguel is targeted primarily at singles in their late 20s to early 30s, dual-income, minimum-wage and starter families. But the beauty of Casa San Miguel is that people looking for investments can buy units and rent them out, since they are highly affordable, stable, secure and guarantee a good return on investment. Good Luck House, Inc. also gives buyers the option of purchasing two or more units and combining them to create the home that will best suit their needs and lifestyle. Different payment options are offered to tailor-fit the buyers’ budget: estimated monthly amortization for as low as  P5,000 a month. Construction is expected to start soon, and by the second quarter of 2010, they will begin turning over the units to buyers.