More and more real estate players are exploring options in emerging cities in the Philippines, outside of Metro Manila, and are being rewarded with brisk sales and increasing demand.
One of them is ItalPinas Development Corp. (ICD), which recently expressed commitment to have more real estate developments in the provinces as it enjoys growing sales for its business.
Romulo Nati, IDC chairman, said the company is securing permits for “projects in various locations,” on top of existing projects in Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro.
“We are confident that Bukinon will become, is already becoming a very hard destination for domestic and later on also for foreign tourism,” Nati predicted.
“We are happy to be among the first to understand the potential of a place like we know the location ahead of competition We are all aware about the slowdown in sales in Metro Manila. We know that some numbers are talking about a quite important disalignment between supply and demand in Metro Manila for the market,” Nati said, speaking at yesterday’s Philippine Stock Exchage’s (PSE) Strengthening Access and Reach (STAR) forum.
“This is not happening in many of the emerging cities in the Philippines and in all places where we are. We are experiencing no slowdown in sales. Actually we are experiencing an increase in demand,” Nati said.
Nati said that the long term outlook for demand in the provinces is quite positive given the lack of proper developments.
“ In the last couple of years we have been able to close almost 20 new joint ventures, not only with land owners but also with contractors, and partner with first class hospitality brands like Scott and Dusit Thani,” he disclosed. “So we are specializing our business in economic development, tourism and hospitality.”
In particular, Nati said that IDC has been expanding to other areas since starting out in Cagayan de Oro.
“We are now expanding in Bukinon and we are also expanding in the region 10 in other areas. This goes for new projects in Palawan, mainly Puerto Princesa City. We want to start from Puerto Princesa and then expand in other areas of Palawan,” Nati said.
“We designed and now we are securing permits for projects in Pampanga, in Boracay, in Bataan, many other areas in the Philippines.”
