Filinvest sees rising demand for condos

With the increasing prices of prime lots and the lack of good locations for residential developments within the city, a property developer foresees an upward trend for condo demand in the future.

Filinvest Land Incorporated business development officer for Metro Cebu development clusters Louie Carandang said that Cebu's market is new for condominiums but he argued that the high cost of properties now a days may convince prospective buyers to patronize these forms of real estate investments.

He said that since they have been eyeing a stronger market presence in Cebu, they have always been pushing for condominium developments in the city aside from expanding outside the area this is because they are optimistic that condos will increase demand in the future.

He said that since Cebu has already started to flourish into becoming a highly urbanized city, prime lots within the area are now very difficult to acquire considering its high cost and the many pocket developments that comes into play such as commercial.

"Instead of buying and developing raw lots with high cost, the next thing for the real estate industry is to develop condos. And as a property developer we are very bullish of the Cebu market since its starting to embrace these new trend," said Carandang.

Filinvest is currently developing a 25-storey property called as Grand Cenia Condotel and Residences at the city' premiere district in the Cebu Business Park that will attempt to address the booming demand of the hotel industry as it create 432 condotel units.

The company has invested an initial P2 billion for the completion of this project that is still on going and is targeted for completion by 2010.

The Grand Cenia offers three products that include a residential condominium with price ranging from P7 million to P13 million depending on the floor plan,; condotel units priced at around P3 million and it also provides a commercial floor eyed to be leased to interested business process outsourcing companies.

Carandang discussed that the concept of Grand Cenia’s condotel will offer buyers a condo unit that can be posted as a hotel unit in which profit could be gained.

Under an ownership arrangement, an international hotel operator will manage these condotel units in the absence of their owners and operational expenses will be deducted from the income that the owner will quarterly receive.

The projected earnings for each condotel unit amounts to about 10 to 15 percent better than investing money in banks and other financial options, discussed Carandang.

A condotel at Grand Cenia covers 24.54 square meters and is priced at P3 million while a residential condominium ranges from.

And very much confident with their operations in Cebu due to the positive reception from the market, Filinvest is looking at pouring more of their resources to create developments within and outside Metro Cebu. – Rhia de Pablo