8990 Holdings sells P1-billion contract to BPI Family Bank

by VG Cabuag - October 30, 2015[ businessmirror.com.ph ]

LOW-COST housing developer 8990 Holdings Inc. on Thursday said it signed a memorandum of agreement with the Bank of the Philippine Islands for the purchase of P1 billion worth of in-house contract to sell (CTS) being handled by the developer.

8990 said in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that BPI Family Bank will process the conversion of CTS handled in-house by the developer and turn it into a mortgage loan under BPI’s own housing program.

“The arrangement carries a limited recourse period of only two years. The actual date of purchase shall be on October 30, 2015,” the company said in a statement.

The recourse ends once the CTS is converted into a mortgage loan even before the two-year recourse period lapses, said Januario Jesus Gregorio III Atencio, the company’s president and CEO.

“The agreement with BPI Family is a significant milestone for 8990, as it signals the growing acceptability of house’s CTS receivables with the banking sector, paving the way for the creation of alternative housing finance in the private sector not only for 8990 but also for the entire mass-housing sector,” Atencio said.

He said the company will pursue similar arrangements with other banks and financial institutions in the near future.

For the first half of the year, the company said it had delivered 2,044 accounts to Home Development Mutual Fund, also known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, for take-out equivalent to about P1.9 billion.

“We note that our performance, in just two quarters, has already surpassed 2014’s full-year take-out value of P1.8 billion,” the company said.

“I have often said that the challenge has never been to create a long-term market for primary housing. It is already there. It is huge and it is growing at a rate faster than the supply of affordable housing in this country. The challenge lies in how genuine our understanding of this market is—how their aspirations, values and realities determine their behavioral, psychological and spending patterns,” Atencio said.

The company’s land bank reached 446 hectares, which has an expected yield of just over 89,000 units, equivalent to an estimated P108 billion in revenue. This translates to a business activity equivalent to five years, growing at 20 percent per annum

_________________________________________________________________

Megaworld’s property values in Alabang soaring

by VG Cabuag - October 27, 2015 [ businesmirror.com.ph ]

PROPERTY developer Megaworld Corp. said real-estate values in its 62-hectare development called Alabang West soared 19 percent, just 11 months after the launch of its subdivision last year.

The company claimed that from P47,000 per square meter in October last year, land prices in Alabang West have increased to P56,000 per sq m as of September this year.

The development was carried out by Global-Estate Resorts Inc.

To date, around 80 percent of the total 788 residential lots are already sold out.

Rachelle Peñaflorida, vice president for sales and marketing of Megaworld, said the fast take-up of lots in the township is attributed to its location and bright prospects for fast value appreciation of the property.

“There has been a sharp rise in the demand for residential lots in Alabang West in the past six months. As far as location is concerned, Alabang is not just an option, but top-of-the-mind to many property buyers, especially those who are looking into the south,” Peñaflorida said.

Alabang West integrates a Beverly Hills-themed lifestyle into its commercial, retail and residential developments.

Aside from a shopping strip inspired by the Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, Alabang West also offers an upscale residential community with lots ranging from 250 sq m to 800 sq m. “In the next five to 10 years, we envision Alabang West to be the next big thing in southern Metro Manila,”  Peñaflorida said.

__________________________________________________________________

Mergers between local developers, international hospitality brands fuel real estate boom

By Louise Maureen Simeon (The Philippine Star) | Updated October 28, 2015 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - The merging of international hospitality brands and Filipino property developers is contributing to the growth of hotel residences real estate market in the large part of the Southeast Asian (SEA) region.

A new research by Asia-based hospitality consulting group C9 Hotelworks showed SEA hotel residences market has topped the P749 billion level, while the Philippines alone has P158 billion worth of properties for sale.

“The historic pattern of hotel and real estate marriages has moved away from the beach and leisure destinations and is gaining traction in urban city offerings. Traditional lifestyle buyers are being supplanted by end users, with Asian’s representing the largest transaction segment,” C9 Hotelworks managing director Bill Barnett said.

C9 Hotelworks revealed that there are over 28,000 hotel branded residential units for sale across seven SEA nations represented by nearly 120 projects.

In the Philippines, market size is reflected in a supply of over 11,000 residential units with Metro Manila and Boracay as the top two locations. Average price for urban properties is at P196,547 per square meter (sqm) and P189,276 per sqm for resort destinations.

Barnett added that one key catalyst for the rising tide is the increasing number of mixed use projects that contain hotel and real estate components.

“What is clear in looking at the landscape is that rapidly escalating land prices are driving developers to embrace mixed-use projects in increasing numbers, and often add in commercial, sporting and tourism attractions as part of broader lifestyle offerings,” he said.

The report highlighted a refocus by global hotel chains who have realized that in order to spur growth, there is an essential need to partner with property developers in hotel residence offerings.

“Asia and the Philippine property cycles have typically seen these type of investment driven projects at the top of markets in the mid 1990s and again in the mid-millennium, hence history is recreating itself, yet this time out at a considerably higher scale,” Barnett said.

A growing number of new projects coming into the Philippines will include hotel brand alliances such as AppleOne Properties that will sign with global Starwood Group for a new Sheraton in Cebu.

Aside from the hotel component, the mixed-use development has 182 condominium units with one, two and three-bedroom types.

“It’s clear that a significant number of projects now contain both traditional accommodation elements and real estate components. It’s forecast that a large push into resort properties will occur in the next two to three years in the sector,” Barnett noted.

_________________________________________________________________