MIGRANT WORKERS' MONEY DRIVING RESIDENTIAL SEGMENT GROWTH
By Dennis D. Estopace
Reporter
THE Philippines hasn't yet reached the level of boom that it experienced before the real-estate bubble burst in 1997, but it is definitely "poised to ride that boom, especially in the mid-rise residential segment." That fearless forecast was made Tuesday by veteran realtor Melesa D. Chua, president and chief executive of Quadrillion Group of Companies.
Quadrillion recently held a groundbreaking of its five-story residential property development project in Parañaque City.
Quadrillion, the property business arm of CDC Holdings Inc. that Chua also owns, likewise acts as sales agent for other property developers like Ayala Land Inc. and SM Property Development Inc.
Chua reorganized her real estate business five years ago after buyers shied away from the market in 1999.
"I had to take a rest. We were badly hit that time," added Chua, who began selling properties in 1989 with the sale of Pasig City's Cristina Tower units at P12,000 to P16,000 per square meter.
Today, units in vertical projects or condominium are sold at a low P35,000 per sq m, she added.
"But we're not seeing an echo of the crisis a decade later," Chua said, adding she is confident that the market today has changed, notably with the aesthetic and cosmopolitan taste of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
In 1997, a currency crisis that hit Thailand forced its neighbors to hike interest rates, thereby bloating chattel mortgage prices.
Currently, monetary authorities continue to lord over a low-interest rate regime.
Analysts say the large bulk of financial security is due to the increasing flow of OFW remittances pumping into a consumer-driven Philippine economy.
At the height of her business as a real-estate agent, Chua's credits included the sale of the Juan Luna Gardens (P57 million), The Bellevue III (P249 million), Le Meriche (P244 million), and Ursular Grandeur Mansions (P16 million).
"Those who made money through rental income and appreciation of their properties that time saw their earnings going down up to P45,000 a month at the height of the crisis," Chua said.
Today, Chua said, they are seeing an uptick in the earnings albeit not in the province of the precrisis levels.
"The property sector is not overheating because we haven't experienced a boom; maybe next year," Chua said.
Despite that, her firm's subsidiary Quadrillion Sales Inc. booked P200 million in total sales among Filipino communities in Japan, Hawaii, Vienna and London between June and September this year.
In a statement, the firm said half of that total amount were sales for the Ayala project Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, for which Quadrillion is an accredited broker.
Business Mirror
November 13, 2006
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/front01.php
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