Ayala Land at helm of APREA

MANILA, Philippines - Jaime E. Ysmael, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI, was recently installed as the new president of The Asian Public Real Estate Association (APREA) during its Annual Property Leaders Forum held in Hong Kong on April 21 to 23. This puts Ayala land Inc. at the helm of the region’s top real estate association comprising 127 top property players from the Asia Pacific region.

APREA is a non-profit industry association established as a unifying body representing Asia’s real estate sector. Its main objective is to effectively promote the real estate sector to domestic and foreign investors and professionally represent the same to government and regulatory entites. By creating such as body, APREA hopes to establish an enhanced business environment for member real estate companies. Tactically, APREA works towards its misson by setting up systems that improve communications and encourage sharing of best practices among its members.

In his closing remarks during the forum, Ysmael, lauded the efforts of APREA and urged his co-members and fellow delegates to work towards discovering opportunities despite the challenging economic environment they face today.

“These are tough and challenging times for our industry, the companies we represent and for our organization as well. But, times of crisis are also times of opportunity and I believe that it is this mindset that we have to take in order to ensure APREA’s continued relevance and to maintain the momentum that has been successfully built-up in our various initiatives over the few years,” he said.

Aligned with its goals to be at the forefront of the property sector in the region, ALI’s leadership in APREA furthers the company’s stake and bolsters its visibility on the Asia-Pacific market. It is an active member of APREA and participates, regularly in APREA organized events such as the Annual Property Leaders Forum.

This year’s forum welcomed 175 delegates from 19 countries for a two-day program at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong. Discussions on debt markets, private equity, capital markets and emerging real estate markets were led by respected players in the real estate field.