Fil-Ams: A growing market for property firms

The savings of Filipino-Americans and the remittances of other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been touted to fuel the foreseen growth in the property sector.

Aside from better sales figures, the increase in property investments has spawned jobs for construction workers and indirect laborers, and created economic linkages with other sectors, such as the furniture and appliance manufacturers.

Fil-Am investors are now more convinced as well of developments in the Philippines partly because of their contributions.

The government is at the forefront of the initiative to attract Fil-Am investments. In May 2006, it spearheaded the “Bayan Ko, Bahay Ko” roadshow that brought together the representatives of the country’s top property developers to key US cities in an effort to promote real estate development in the Philippines.

Among those that participated were Ayala Land, Burgundy Realty Corp., Cityland Development Corp., Crown Asia Properties, Inc., Daiichi Properties & Development, Landco Pacific Corp., Ledesco Development Corp., Federal Land, Inc., Filinvest Land, Inc., Megaworld International, Pacific Concord Properties, Inc., Tagaytay Pacific Heights, Inc. and Lakeshore Development.

They have good reasons to pursue their campaign as more overseas Filipinos seek to invest on properties in their homeland.

More than 30 percent of Ayala Land’s unit sales, for instance, come from purchases of OFWs, according to AB Capital Securities. This is a proof of an accelerated growth from 25 percent in 2005.

Megaworld, for its part, also reported a 92-percent surge in net profit to P1.5 billion from January to September in 2006.

Another developer, Robinsons Land Corporation (RLC), may also have felt the positive impact of its participation in the May roadshow as it scheduled other trips to the US in the following months. The company promoted East of Galleria, which is situated at the heart of the Ortigas Center or the so-called mall capital of the Philippines.

For its housing projects in the cities of Antipolo, Angeles, Davao, Tagyatay; and towns of General Trias, Dasmarinas and Mabalacat, the Gokongwei-owned company is offering an interest rate of 11 percent and payment terms of up to 15 years through its in-house financing.

As a whole, what developers are stressing in their promotions is the high value for a relatively small amount of dollars that Fil-Am investors would be receiving. Many observers have viewed the Philippine real estate prices as a bargain when compared to American standards. Landco, in one of its exhibits in the US, offered a price range of $175,000 to $215,000 for one of its high-end properties overlooking the South China Sea.

But beyond the affordability criterion, local developers realized that the best way to market their properties is to show that the same comfort abroad that had been experienced through long years of hard work can be enjoyed on one’s native soil. – Artemio Cusi III