by Lovely A. Carillo
DAVAO CITY is now definitely a favorite investment destination for the country’s top real estate developers. What’s heartening is that these developers think that the city’s property market is far from being saturated, even as new projects, ranging from the low-cost to the high-end, are sprouting like mushrooms in the center and the outskirts of the city.
Aside from some 30 property developers with active projects, a good number of new players have been added to the sector, according to government and industry sources.
The current players with projects worth billions of pesos in Davao City alone include
DMC Urban Property, Landco Pacific, HLC, Camella, Holiday, Davao Joyful, RJP, Davao Elite, Sta. Lucia, 8990 Housing Dev’t. Corp., Foothills, Ladislawa, Kisan Lu, Hemeni Land, Ayala Land, Damosa and Filinvest to mention a few. They are now into high-end housing and medium-rise condominium development in the poblacion and peripheral areas within a radius of less than 10 kms from the center.
Among the real estate firms that have completed and have ongoing projects in the city are Manny Villar’s Vista Land with high-end projects like Solariega, Toscana and the latest Camella Northpoint; Kisan Lu Lands and Development Inc. which, after a series of low-cost housing, has now ventured into high-end homes like the classy Amiya Resort Residences; Villa Azalea along Maa which is a modern take on the Bahay Kubo. And there is the Consunji Group which revolutionized the condominium industry in the city with their Ecoland 2000 and Magallanes Residences projects.
Appearing before Davao editors and business writers during the yearend staging of Business News Forum at SM MediSpa last month, Roberto Teo, city investment and promotions chief, said property development projects worth P5 billion were among those which benefitted from tax incentives granted by the city government.
In a press briefing and site visitation last Tuesday, Allan Barquilla, Filinvest Davao manager, summed up his company’s performance in 2009 as “way better than in 2008.”
Filinvest is gearing up to get a big slice of the emerging real property market in the city by putting up six big real estate housing development projects in Davao City alone. That’s on top of the firm’s medium rise developments.
“Davao’s property market is far from being saturated and proof of that are Filinvest’s existing and future development projects in the city,” Barquilla told business reporters during an interview conducted right at the site of one of the company’s biggest projects in the city, the One Oasis Condominiums located just at the back of SM City Davao in Ecoland.
Barquilla said the company’s medium rise development project accounted for 10% to 15% of their gross sales last year, with the Davao City market accounting for huge sales. He said Filinvest’s main office in Manila will soon reveal last year’s sales figures in Davao, adding that the company considers the condominium project its bestseller.
“We are faced with a changing market here which has become more sophisticated,” Filinvest business development manager Geraldine de Gorostiza said. Property buyers now prefer to invest in properties that are not only closer to the city but are more affordable, she added.
Filinvest is considered the market leader in property development even if its rates are slightly higher than in the rest of the industry. “We believe this is because we offer good location and we are a built-up company that operates not on mere promises alone but we deliver,” he said.
The One Oasis condominium project of Filinvest is a six-building complex. Two of the buildings were completed last year, with the third building nearing completion middle of 2010 and the fourth one to start construction this year.
“The first building was sold out within a month after the pre-selling last year,” Barquilla said. The second building has also been sold out as of July 2009. Building 3 is already 60% sold out.
Barquilla said majority or about 40% of their MRD customers are out-of-towners or coming from other areas in Mindanao and the country, but all local buyers. Overseas Filipino Workers make up 30%, while the remaining 30% of condominium buyers are accounted for by Dabawenyos.
Other property developers are experiencing a similar if not slight different phenomenon, a source at Camella told Edge Davao.
One of the very first projects of Filinvest in the city is Orange Grove, which is now in the last 20% of their inventory. This is a 32-hectare development along Diversion Road. Fonte de Villa Abrille, which has a very mouth-watering location right in Juna Subdivision, was already sold out as of June 2009.
Le Jardin, a 12-hectare high-end subdivision located in Maa, adjacent to NCCC Mall and just a kilometre away from SM City Davao, is almost sold out, with only 15 units remaining at P9,000 to P10,000 per sq m.
Filinvest is also very visible in Dumoy as it has two projects there. One is Ocean Cove, a 15-hectare middle class beachfront housing which costs P6,000 per square meter with a minimum of 200 sq m lot per cut. Another one is Villa Mercedita which is considered pretty affordable starting at P5,800 per sq m , with lots cut into 110 to 140 sq m per lot.
One of Filinvest’s property developments that has attracted a lot of celebrities in the business, political and entertainment sectors is Kembali Coast in Kaputian, Samal. This is a 50-hectare development divided into four phases. Phase 1 of the development is nearly 90% sold out and Phase 2 already 20% sold out. This is a high end resort development priced at P3,000 per sqm with lots cut into a minimum of 750 sqm for each lot. While Barquilla would not reveal the name of their locators, he said the country’s top cosmetic surgeon owns a lot in Kembali.
Despite its success in selling its real estate development projects in Davao City, Filinvest is not resting on its laurels and has even become more aggressive in its marketing. The company has conducted a sales caravan in far-flung areas in Mindanao including Surigao, Bukidnon, Isulan and Surallah in South Cotabato.
With all these real estate development projects rising one after another, one would think that Davao City would run out of open spaces for new developments. But then again, knowing that these developers have explored Samal Island, one has to admit that there seems to be at present endless opportunities in Davao’s real estate market.
