Nexus realty unveils new project in Cebu

(The Freeman) Updated December 10, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - Offering an affordable luxurious way of living, Nexus real estate Corporation has again introduced another project even only after a few years in the real estate industry.

Despite it being a new player as they started only in 2001, Nexus did not hold back their plans especially with the continuing support that their projects has reaped in Cebu.

Shanna Louise Lopez, Assistant Vice president for Nexus real estate said that they are very optimistic with how their new project, The Villagio, will be received by the public especially with its very good location.

The Villagio is a 2.3 hectare property developed by Nexus in San Fernando, Cebu which adopts a contemporary Italian village.

Lopez said that they have already developed nine projects but The Villagio is so far their third major project on residential house and lots since they initially started off with pocket projects like selling and building house and lots in prominent subdivisions।

According to Lopez, they had a very good feedback on their first few projects, which led them to have bigger projects like the Consolacion Valley in Lamac Consolacion, North of Cebu and Pacific Village in Linao Minglanilla. Presently, Nexus is completing Kamalaya residences in Minglanilla, which Lopez said has already 90 percent of the units sold.

Lopez said that they had a good year for 2009 despite the financial crisis given the number of buyers they had with a lot coming from Overseas Filipino Workers, young professionals and growing families.

With a lot of real estate companies mushrooming all over the city, Lopez said that they still sell a lot of properties since a lot of people see the edge of their houses and their properties from others.

Lopez said that for The Villagio, they are confident that the property being in San Fernando would have a lot of advantage being the only real estate development in the area.

Jo Jamero, the marketing director of All real estate realty, the marketing arm of the project, said that The Villagio is just minutes away from the schools, market, municipal hall, church, police station and the beaches which makes it very convenient for the residents. This is on top of the services to be offered inside the community like the basketball court, playground, and other amenities.

According to Jamero, since people see the high need to invest in real estate, The Villagio, as well as the other projects of Nexus, is assured that it would be a good and safe place to put in one’s money.

The Villagio has four models to choose from namely: Bernini, Palladio, Caravaggio and Palazzo Rosita. Jamero said that all the units capture the idea of the classy Italian concept of the village but is assured to be affordable for their usual market which is the B to D market. The Bernini is a single detached unit with a floor area of 50.3 square meters in a 120 square meter lot while the Palladio is the duplex unit in a 60 meter lot area that is good for young and starting up families. The Caravaggio has the same space of the Palladio but are row house units while the Palazzo Rosita is a two-storey cluster of five units with a 120 square meter floor area.

Jamero said that its easier for their prospect buyers as well since they have a lot of payment schemes and discounts that would make it more convenient for their clients.

Jamero said that The Villagio is also unique since aside from the house and lots that the buyers could own, they also offer expandable units and even open spaces for the buyers to avail of.

The Villagio is also business-friendly with commercial lots in the front area of the subdivision is open for entrepreneurs. —AJ de la Torre

RP medtourism anchors hopes on Global Pinoys

By Ehda M. Dagooc (The Freeman) Updated December 10, 2009 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - The future of medical tourism in the Philippines will not solely depend on the volume of foreign clients coming to the country to seek medical help, but its growth is largely reliant on the Filipinos working abroad.

“Unlike other countries, the Philippines has its natural market. It is not relying on foreign patients, because the source of constant and sustainable growth for the industry is the OFWs, or the Filipinos residing and working abroad,” said Department of Health head for special concerns Anthony Calibo.

According to Calibo regardless if foreigners come in the Philippines or not to seek medical help, the medical tourism industry here will still grow “because we have growing OFWs, who prefer to get medical attention in their home land.”

If foreigners find it very expensive to avail of medical care in their own countries, how much more the Filipinos working abroad, “they are the first to come, and they are our ‘captured’ market for medical tourism.”

Calibo admitted that the Philippines’ positioning as a premier medical tourism destination, has been always put on the sidelight compared to other countries like Thailand, and India, because of negative publicities brought about by recent calamities like typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng, and the recent Maguindanao massacre, among others।

Good thing, he said that the Philippines will be assured of the dollar-earning Filipinos to go back to their home-country to avail of the different medical services, including vanity, dental, and executive check-up, among others.

Calibo underscored the top-notch and world-sought-after Filipino nurses, and good English speaking medical professionals, as one of the few advantages of the Philippines, compared to other countries.

“They may take our nurses out, but we still have good nurses and medical practitioners here,” Kalibo said.

However, there are still challenges that the medical institutions in the country should address seriously. This is in providing world-class medical services and technology, as the Philippines is already on top in terms of human-touch.

“We have to improve further. We need to work together in addressing issues that hamper of growth in attracting medical tourists, and the foreign retiree market,” said Kalibo.

While the “Balikbayans” of the Filipino community abroad are sustaining the medical tourism sector’s growth, the Philippines should also work hard in attracting more foreign patients or retiree vacationers in order to boost employment and revenue for the country’s economy.

Truly, he said the Philippines if only more medical institutions will get international accreditation and improve medical services, it can become a “threat” to other countries.

“We are a threat to well-known medical tourism destinations like Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia,” he said.

So far, in Cebu only one hospital has been able to get international standard certification to the Joint Commission International (JCI), the Chong Hua Hospital.

Kalibu hopes that more hospitals here will get this kind of certification, so that Cebu will be able to take advantage of the multi-million-dollar medical tourism market in the world.

Cebu firm to intensify IT park development in 2010

Written by Willy Rodolfo III / Reporter
Monday, 07 December 2009 20:59

CEBU Property Ventures Development Corp. (CPVDC) will start in 2010 the development of the Asiatown IT Park to meet the requirements of the ever-expanding BPO sector in Metro Cebu.

CPVDC president Francis Monera said the company, which has already begun horizontal development of the 5-hectare property project, has earmarked more than P200 million for this initial work.

“The demand we see from the BPO is still there. It is not as it was originally forecasted but we see the industry growing at 25 percent in the next few years,” Monera said.

Monera said CPVDC also plans at least three major vertical developments in Asiatown for 2010 when two BPO buildings and one residential-hotel building will be constructed.

The project’s e-bloc, a joint venture between CPVDC and Ayala Land Inc., has been fully leased out seven months after it was completed. Two BPO locators, the Atlanta-based NCR (National Cash Register) and JP Morgan Chase Inc., share the P800-million building, which was CPVDC’s first venture in developing its own building. The company used to sell only lots in its property projects.

The new development, initially called the enclave, is located at the far corner of the 24-hectare Asiatown IT Park. CPVDC is studying the development of the remaining undeveloped portion of the property.

Asiatown, established in 2000, hosts around 60 call centers and non-voice business providers that employ about 13,000 people, making it the biggest IT-BPO hub outside Metro Manila.

RP property sector resilient in crisis, 2010 outlook good—CBRE

Written by Rizal Raoul Reyes / Correspondent

Wednesday, 09 December 2009 20:30

THE Philippines’s property industry showed resiliency amidst the financial meltdown prevailing in the global market and is expected to display a positive trend going into 2010, according to the Philippine office of a major property management consulting firm belonging to the Fortune 500 and S&P 500 groupings.

Rick Santos, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Philippines, (CBRE), said on Wednesday the property industry survived the onslaught of the global financial crisis as developers continue to open new projects in response to increasing demand.

“The property industry has remained strong and resilient amid the global financial crisis,” said Santos in a briefing in Makati City. 

As a result, Santos said majority of the Philippines property companies remained profitable in the first nine months of 2009.

He cited the SM group with SM Prime Holdings Inc. and SM Development Corp. (SMDC) as major players together with its affiliate Anchor Land Holdings as the stars of the industry in that period.

The SM Group is focused on retail malls, residential condominiums and hotel developments across the country.

“Real-estate products will continue to sell given market demand but must be in the right location and responsive to buyers expectations as to price, quality and timely delivery,” Santos said.

SMDC, the middle-income residential condominium development arm of the SM group, reported P1.3-billion net income in the first three quarter.

Santos said there are active players such as Ortigas & Co, Greenfield Development DMCI Homes, Phinma Properties and Rockwell Land which are now venturing to pocket developments, to get a share in the growing demand for affordable residential dwellings for both housing and condominiums.

“These developers have significant land holdings and strong balance sheets that empower them to launch and complete well planned real-estate projects,” he said.

The trend is expected to continue into 2010 and onwards as the Philippine economy slowly regains its growth momentum which has been temporarily derailed by the global economic slowdown, according to Santos.

With the passage of the Philippine REIT Act of 2009, Santos sees investment in the property sector to accelerate as more investors will seek more new opportunities previously limited to institutional investors.

Among the income-generating assets that can be converted into real-estate investment trusts are office buildings, residential condominiums, townhouses, apartments, shopping/outlet centers, tourism-related facilities such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, golf courses; health care (hospitals, nursing homes, retirement homes and drugstores); warehouses, R&D centers, and infrastructure such as expressways, railways, ports, power plants.

Joey Radovan, CBRE Philippines vice chairman and head of global corporate services, said there will be consolidation of office spaces in 2010 as business process outsourcing (BPO) companies and other companies will look for cheaper rates.

As of the third quarter of 2009, Radovan said tracked takeup for the Metro Manila office market was 158,319 square meters. In 2008, it was approximately 225,000 square meters. The year 2007 has the highest with 330,000 square meters.

“The slowdown was expected because of the completion of the big transactions and companies have become conservative in their plans when the financial crisis emerged in the horizon,” Radovan said.

Radovan said Cebu is the next big thing as far as development of business districts is concerned. He said growth in demand has resulted in major developments in the office market in Cebu and the fringe areas of Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City.

He said the recent announcement of Ayala Land Inc to develop a new IT park indicates there is still room for growth in the area. Cebu Business Park and the Asiatown IT Park are the newest business districts in Cebu City.

“Cebu is the place to watch as far as development of business centers is concerned,” said Radovan.
 

Loans to real estate sector up 17.5%

By Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star) Updated December 09, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - The combined exposure of universal, commercial

, and thrift banks to the real estate sector expanded by 17.5 percent in the first nine months of the year due to the construction and development of more commercial spaces and the acquisition of more residential units.

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that the combined exposure of the industry to the real estate sector amounted to P376.77 billion as of end-September this year or P56.03 billion higher than the P320.74 billion registered in the same period last year.

Real estate loans extended by universal

, commercial, and thrift banks jumped by 17.4 percent to P366.89 billion from January to September this year compared with P312.51 billion in the same period last year.

Loans extended for the construction and development of real estate properties for commercial purposes surged by 21 percent to P204.39 billion from P168.85 billion while loans for the acquisition, construction or improvement of residential units to be occupied by household borrowers expanded by 13.1 percent to P162.49 billion from P143.66 billion.

Statistics showed that investments in securities issued by real estate companies grew by 19।9 percent to P9.88 billion in the first nine months of the year from P8.24 billion in the same period last

Universal and commercial banks accounted for 71.6 percent or P269.92 billion of the total exposure to the real estate sector while thrift banks cornered the remaining 28.4 percent or P106.84 billion.

The exposure of universal and commercial banks increased by 21 percent from last year’s P223.24 billion while the exposure of thrift banks to the real estate sector inched up by 9.6 percent from a year-ago level of P97.5 billion.

The exposure to the real estate sector accounted for about 15 percent of the industry’s total loan portfolio that stood at P2.496 trillion from January to September this year.

This was an improvement of the ratio of 13.6 percent of the industry’s total loan portfolio of P2.362 trillion in the same period last year.