[ Malaya.com.ph ] May 12, 2009
The office space and middle-income housing markets are expected to make a recovery in 2010, prompting developers to come up with projects meant to ride the next boom.
A company known for its pharmaceutical business has launched its first real estate project, while a long time middle-income market player has indicated it is preparing to ramp up its inventory to meet expected demand.
The Zuellig Group, through its realty unit Bridgebury Realty Corp., yesterday unveiled its first high rise tower project along Makati avenue, the first structure in the Philippines to be certified in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard set by the US Green Building Council.
Long-time player Avida Land Inc. (Avida) said it is prepared to scale up projects should the demand for new units improve.
Avida, the middle-income market unit of realty Ayala Land Inc., yesterday launched its second condominium project in Makati, the Avida San Lorenzo Tower along Pasong Tamo extension.
Rex Mendoza, Ayala Land senior vice president for corporate sales and market, said the middle-income and affordable market has been the resilient sector in the real estate industry given that buyers in this market are all mostly end-users.
In Avida’s experience, between 60 percent to 80 percent of sales are coming from end-users.
Mendoza said that following the crumbling of many economies due to the global financial crisis, overseas Filipino workers have also increased their interest in the middle-income segment of Ayala Land’s project portfolio.
For its new project, the company is sinking P1.5 billion into the 1,132-unit, two-tower Avida San Lorenzo. Avida San Lorenzo is being promoted for 30s something young professionals and office workers who are looking for homes in the city.
Mendoza said that after the challenging months in Q3 and Q4 last year, they saw improvements in the first three months of the year, indicating that the slump is showing some bottoming up. -Albert Castro
