Manila’s condo units offer residential property investors a taste of the high life
Manila is highly competitive for residential property investment, with its attractive prices coupled with a favourable exchange rate
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s diplomacy with China has boosted Metro Manila’s residential property market, according to licensed real estate broker Joanne Almaden. She says her Bonifacio Global City-based agency, Phil. Property Expert, has signed an increasing number of leases and short-term rental agreements with Chinese-speaking tenants.
“The warming ties with Beijing certainly contributed to the confidence of Chinese buyers and renters of properties here,” she says. “At least 10 per cent of our tenants now are Chinese.”
Her company “last year closed contracts with a couple of Hong Kong-based investors for buying condo units, and for us to manage the rentals of these properties”, Almaden says. “But the Europeans and Americans are apparently very interested in bringing their capital here also.”
That’s because the Philippines residential property sector has been booming for several years, says Rick Santos, chairman and CEO of Santos Knight Frank.
“Much of this growth has been driven by the business process outsourcing [BPO] industry,” Santos says. The Philippines economy “grew by 6.8 per cent in 2016”, he adds, while the Asian Development Bank has revised its projections to 6.2 per cent in 2017.
Prime residential prices in Manila have continued to rise over the past three years, Santos Knight Frank says, citing the average annual increase in rental rates as “running between 5 per cent and 10 per cent”. Manila will continue to be highly competitive as a destination for residential property investment “with attractive prices for the prime residential market, coupled with a favourable exchange rate and build quality of international standards”, Santos says. “The capital will also continue to remain attractive for overseas investors, with Hong Kong and Singapore being key markets for potential inbound investment.”
Colliers Philippines deputy managing director Richard Raymundo has seen Hong Kong-based BPO companies set up in the Philippines, and his company has also performed “occasional sales” on behalf of mostly expatriate Hong Kong-based investors. Current listings include a penthouse unit at Raffles Residences, Makati for 139 million pesos (HK$21.5 million). The penthouse is about HK$200,000 cheaper than it would have been on January 1, thanks to the weakening peso.
