11/19/2009 [ tribune.net.ph ]
High-rise living has suddenly become more popular in Manila after killer storms caused massive flooding in the capital, property industry officials said.
Businesses are also moving to higher ground to avoid a repeat of the devastation from recent storms, which killed more than 1,100 persons in Manila and other parts of the island of Luzon, the officials told a business forum.
“More Filipinos will embrace high-rise living. They still prefer single-detached homes, but now they are more open to high-rises,” Robinsons Land Corp. vice president Henry Yap told the forum.
After the storms “we had a barrage of calls (from people) wanting to rent out our high-rise units.”
Tropical storm “Ondoy” dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades in Manila on Sept. 26, leaving more than 80 percent of the city flooded.
This was compounded a week later by typhoon “Pepeng,” which caused most damage further north of Luzon but also brought more rains to Manila.
Nearly two months after Ondoy, hundreds of thousands of people are still living in flooded areas on the outskirts of Manila.
“Some people were traumatized (by the floods) and don’t want to go home,” said Corazon Guidote, head of SM Investments Corp., a holding company with real estate interests.
“You can already see a migration to certain areas. People are going to areas which are of higher elevation. Rental rates in some areas have gone up because of the migration. There will be more demand for high-rises.”
However Guidote did not give specifics.
Other companies said they were also reviewing their plans for disaster preparedness in the wake of the floods.
“We are putting some of our treatment plants on stilts,” said Frank Beaumont, group director of Manila Water Company, the capital’s main water distributor.
