The rich don't buy a house to put roof over their heads

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The rich don't buy a house to put roof over their heads
Posted: 3:25 AM | Mar. 12, 2006
Margie Quimpo-Espino
Inquirer

(Published on page B1 of the March 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

THE rich are a different breed. They indulge in activities that would shock others and they buy things for reasons different from those of Juan de la Cruz.

Take real estate purchases, for example. While most Filipinos buy property because they need a roof over their heads, the rich buy houses, according to their "life stage."

Angela de Villa-Lacson has been in charge of the high-end real-estate market of the Ayala group for the past five years. Recently, the group created the Ayala Land Premier whose job it is to sell the group's real estate projects with price tags of P6 million to P55 million (like the penthouse of the Roxas Triangle in Makati).

Lacson says the rich are prompted to buy property "because of a change in their life stage."

The Ayala Land Inc. senior vice president explains: As young adults, they are bought condo units by their parents. Locations of these units must be near "where the action is and the gimmick places."

When they marry and have children, they move to a bigger condo unit or buy a house. When opting for a house, there are usually trade-offs, such as living in an area far from the commercial district and the night spots, but nearer schools and with better surroundings.

When the children grow up and get their own places, the couple then moves back to a smaller place, such as a condo unit, because the house becomes too big.

At the same time, the rich do not just buy one house. They buy several.

Ayala Land Premier, for example, has "suki" clients who buy in almost every development project of the group.

This habit of the rich has actually created "ghost towns" in some areas in the metropolis because the rich do buy property, but do not always build on it; or build beautiful houses that nobody lives in because they look at these as investments or future houses of their unmarried children.

But while Lacson admits that "there is a core group of buyers" who buy in every new Ayala Land development, sometimes without even seeing the area, they do not have any "ghost towns."

She says ALI is always able to attract homeowners who live in the developments.

And these buyers, she says, are not high profile and they prefer the privacy afforded by some of the developments of Ayala.

Over the past five years, changes have occurred in the real property market that have prompted Ayala Land Inc., the real estate arm of the Ayala conglomerate, to further define its market.

Thus ALI now has three residential real estate arms—Ayala Land Premier which is its most high end; Avida Land Corp., formerly the Laguna Properties Holdings Inc. (LPHI), which targets real estate buyers of property worth P700,000 to P3 million; and Community Innovations Inc., which focuses on clients who can afford units costing P2.5 million to P8 million. Lacson, whose experience comes largely from consumer goods—first with Unilever, then with San Miguel Corp., before joining ALI, admits the change from retail to real estate was "very difficult."

But this difficulty also became her driving force to do well.

"What made me fall in love with real estate was the impact it makes on people's lives," she says.

She explains that unlike a sachet of shampoo or a bottle of beer that a buyer can just throw away if he does not like it, one cannot just dump a house.

This, Lacson says, is what challenged her in real estate—to ensure that ALI builds homes that people will be happy to live in.

She admits that "we can't always build perfect things" but by having only a small number of accredited contractors, the firm is able to do better quality control.

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