Real estate brokers national convention set here Oct. 8

The Philippine Association of Realtors Boards Inc. (PAREB) is set to hold their 49th national convention in Davao City on October 8-10 this year in the midst of the continuing boom in the city’s real estate industry. The national convention was held in Subic last year and in Bohol the previous year.
“The host of the national convention is actually rotated among the four regions every year,” said PAREB senior vice president and overall convention chairperson Liza Elsie E. Parreno. PAREB is divided into four regions namely the National Capital Region, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
PAREB is the organization of all real estate boards in the Philippines. All its members are licensed real estate brokers and are the only ones who have the legal right to be called realtors as the latter is a trademark name.
Parreno said there are two recognized organizations of licensed real estate brokers in the country,  namely REBAP and PAREB. PAREB is the biggest organization, with about 3,000 individual members throughout the country. The Davao Board of Realtors, which is a member of PAREB, now has 101 licensed real estate brokers.
“It is actually a good thing that the national convention is being held here this week to highlight the growth of the city’s real estate industry,” she said. While the whole world is wallowing in the global financial crisis, Davao City is enjoying a brisk growth in the real estate industry.
Parreno said “positive pa rin ang growth ng real estate industry despite the crisis. We seem to have benefitted from the crisis in the United States because instead of investing in other countries, moneyed Filipinos opt to come home and spend and invest their money here, she added.
Investors, she said, should make sure they only negotiate with licensed real estate brokers since these people are recognized by the government.
Although they do not have the exact figure on how big the city’s real estate industry is, Parreno said Davao’s real estate sector is clearly worth billions already. She said there has been an upsurge in the growth of real estate investors in the past two years.
“Just take a look at Camella which appear to be very aggressive in their investments here,” she said. Also notable is the growth of the condominium investments in the city which was spearheaded by the Consunji Group followed by Camella.
Parreno said “the city’s real estate industry has greatly improved from simple housing to mid-end resorts; dati puro socialized housing lang but now they have discovered a new niche market they can tap.”
The Davao Board of Realtors Foundation, Inc., formerly known as the Davao Realty Board, is one of the strongest groups in the country, and as proof of that, it celebrated its 58th anniversary last September 18. Among the people who originally formed DBRFI are Realtors Lucio Ildefonso, Joseph de Tagle, Alfonso Mata, Jose Trinio and Enrico Nograles. It became a PAREB charter member last April 29, 1960. [LAC]