Contractor makes big leap into property development

PILA, Laguna, Philippines – Reynaldo Calayan Jr., the 60-year old civil engineer behind Calmar Land Development Corp, spent a lot of his growing up years in construction sites.

He is, after all, the son of an engineer. His father worked for the Department of Public Works and Highways and occasionally brought him to construction sites.

Like most children exposed to construction sites, Calayan knew the sound, sight and smell of such work places. He became familiar with everything that goes with the territory — the sound of grinding machines, cement mixers, hammers banging on, wood and metal, and used nails scattered everywhere.

It is thus no surprise Calayan became a contractor soon after he graduated at the age of 23. He knew the construction business like the back of his hand.

“Right after graduation, I become a contractor. I was 23 years old,” said Calayan, president and CEO of Calmarland.

Eventually, having made a name as a freelance contractor, he then decided to make the big leap and went into the housing sector.

The time was right. It was the time of then president Corazon Aquino and there was a housing boom.

“In 1989 the housing sector boomed,” he said, adding it became easy to buy homes because of flexible financing terms.

Thus, he decided to shift to land development from subcontracting given that his family owned parcels of land in Quezon.

“We started with three hectares. It wasn’t really housing but horizontal development or open housing. It easily sold out. People liked it,” he said.

Soon after, he expanded in Laguna and then in Batangas.

The rest, as they say, is history,

Now, Calayan’s Calmarland is one of the biggest players in the Calabarzon or the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon region.

Raymundo Alonso, Calmarland chief operations officer, said the company has a portfolio of 20 communities already comprising of 400 hectares of land for mostly the middle income market.

Calayan said the company has a land bank of roughly 1,000 hectares.

“We are in the Calabarzon because demand here is strong,” Calayan said.

Now, the company is venturing into another segment which is the economic housing segment  with the launch of Promesa in Brgy. Bagong Pook here.

Promesa is Spanish for “promise” and reflects the developers’ commitment to deliver the same high quality homes that offer the best value for money for Filipino families.

This maiden venture into the economic segment will span close to five hectares, with an inventory of approximately 500 homes that range in size from 44 to 84 square meters.

Emmanuel Pablo, Calmarland national sales head, said the move to venture into the economic housing segment is the company’s contribution to addressing the 5.5 million housing backlog in the market.

“Our goal is to address the housing needs of more Filipinos particularly in underserved provinces. It is also one way we support infrastructure development. As provinces become more aggressive, there will be a need for more houses in these areas,” Pablo said.

Once completed, the project will offer a community that gives a comfortable lifestyle to more than 400 families in the area.

“We want to ulitize our land by providing what the market needs that they can pay-to-own at P3,000 to P6,000 a month through Pag-IBIG. Buyers can move in once they pay the minimum 10 percent equity,” Pablo said.

Alonso stressed the development of Promesa is seen to give rise to more jobs in the area.

“We also want the project to create a domino effect that can be an enabler of the local government of Laguna in uplifting the local economy as studies have shown that for every one peso spent on housing construction, there is a direct and indirect impact of P3.40 to the economy,” Alonso also said.

He said the company would continue with its vision of Building Communities on Solid Ground — which is about developing high quality, functional homes in communities.

Calmarland, indeed, has established itself as one of the largest property developers in Calabarzon. It has also set standards in community living to make every family and individual aspire for a home that they could call their own.