Monday, December 07, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES [ BusinessWorld Online ]
LOPEZ-LED ROCKWELL Land, Inc. is seeing a good year for the property sector next year, joining other real estate firms in issuing a positive outlook after a turbulent 2009.
"There is plenty of money around ... those who made money in the stock market [for instance] are just waiting the next wave to invest their money back [or put this elsewhere, like in the property market]," Rockwell Land President Nestor J. Padilla said in an interview.
Echoing the positive sentiment of other developers like Federal Land, Inc. of the Metrobank Group of Companies, Lucio Tan-led Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. and Anchor Land Holdings, Inc. which have earlier pledged to boost developments next year, Mr. Padilla said the real estate sector’s growth next year would continue to come from locals, rather than from Filipinos outside the country.
"It will still be coming from the locals although demand from overseas Filipino workers will also always be there because they will want to come home. This year has been good for the local property industry and next year things are very, very encouraging," Mr. Padilla said.
Property firms have estimated the country’s housing backlog to be at three million units, with most of the demand coming from the low-income to middle-income segments.
Because of this, Rockwell Land believes the market for its 5.5-hectare The Grove on C-5 Road in Pasig will "still be there" as shown by how its first two towers have performed in terms of sales.
Half of the units for the two towers are already sold despite having been introduced just last year.
"The Grove is really catering to the young professionals. Most of our buyers are Filipinos," Mr. Padilla said.
Rockwell Land, he said, is on track toward finishing the P10-billion The Grove, which when completed by 2014, will have six high-rise towers housing a total of 2,000 units.
The smallest unit in the project is a 50-square-meter (sq.m.) one-bedroom unit, while the biggest will be the 200-sq.m. so-called "garden units." They are priced at P5 million and P12 million, respectively.
Rockwell Land is also close to finishing its masterplanned 15.5-hectare Rockwell community in Makati City with three more projects, led by the Edades residential tower, a serviced apartment building which will rise on a 4,000-sq.m. lot, and a new retail strip which will occupy a 6,000-sq.m. area.
Edades is a 53-storey high condominium project inspired by Filipino painter Victorio C. Edades, acknowledged leader of the revolutionary "Thirteen Moderns" who engaged classical painters in heated debate over the nature and function of art.
The P4-billion Edades Tower follows other Rockwell developments named after Filipino painters.
It recently completed the Manansala tower, which was named after Vicente Silva Manansala, the cubist painter and illustrator and National Artist for Visual Arts. -- Kristine Jane R. Liu
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