Monday, October 26, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES [ BusinessWorld Online ]
THE HIGH-END brand of property developer Ayala Land, Inc. expects to sell the remaining units of its luxury condominium project Serendra at Fort Bonifacio in the first half of next year as demand from local buyers remain robust.
"At the rate that we are going, we can sell the remaining units of East Tower at One Serendra by the first or second quarter next year," Melissa Gil, Ayala Land Premier’s head of residential building and leisure division, said on Thursday.
Since the 42-story project was launched last year, almost 70% of of the condominium units have already been sold to domestic buyers who came from Metro Manila and suburban areas, some of whom include "empty nesters" who do not want to maintain a big house.
"We are able to attract [buyers from] different demographics and for us that was the most surprising. People have money; its a matter of where do they want to put it," Ms. Gil said.
The Ayala Land executive pointed out that locations like Makati City have been perceived by most as an "investor’s market," while Fort Bonifacio has been predominantly an "end-user" market.
"This is why we are not worried when the [global financial] crisis struck because our reservations still kept coming. We started feeling the upward swing in the second quarter and a lot of our customers are cash buyers," Ms. Gil added.
The East Tower is one of the two buildings at the 4.5-hectare One Serendra at Taguig’s Bonifacio Global City and is part of the latter phase of One Serendra’s development.
Ayala Land plans to launch the last high-rise tower known as the West Tower in the second half of next year.
Slightly similar to East Tower, the West Tower will be 10 stories higher, housing 370 units or 87 units more than that of East Tower.
The West Tower will offer the same "themed" condo units like East Tower’s Skypool and the Garden pool units, which in the past sold for P48 million to P50 million each.
Unit sizes at the East Tower rangerom 82 square meters (sq. m.) for a one-bedroom unit to as big as 212 sq. m. for a three-bedroom unit. The price of the units fall between P10 million to P23 million.
One Serendra is part to the masterplanned 12-hectare mixed-use Serendra development at the Bonifacio Global City. The entire place houses 10 mid-rise buildings and six high-rise buildings, along with retail strips.
The net income of Ayala Land fell by a third to P2.07 billion from January to June because of lower residential sales.
Shares in the listed property company of the Ayala conglomerate climbed by 2.22% or P0.25 to P11.50 apiece on Friday. — Kristine Jane R. Liu
_____________________________________________________________________________________
