Cebu’s changing landscape

A spate of new condominium towers and horizontal subdivisions punctuated by shopping malls and pocket commercial developments is reshaping Cebu’s skyline.

Major developers from Manila are establishing their presence as they race to build vertical residentials, but homegrown developers are also keeping pace. 

Their efforts, in total, account for some 20 condo projects, including a landmark 55-storey structure, and nearly 50 subdivisions in the suburbs which are set to rise in the next three to five years. These are expected to widen the city’s array of living spaces: soon entering the market are affordable studio units for business process outsourcing (BPO) workers and out-of-town students, as well as costly apartments with gardens or pools for balikbayan retirees and expatriates.
On the retail front, developers SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and Ayala-led Cebu Holdings, Inc. are expanding to provide 300,000 square meters-worth of leasable space.

The property boom, driven by a robust BPO sector and a growing community of foreign and non-local students, will likely continue for the next half decade, said Cebu Realtors Board (CEREB) president Tonette T. Fritzsche. “It’s a seller’s market because we’re just starting to fill the gap in housing. We have probably five more years before the market is saturated,” she said.

Demand for both house-and-lot and condominium units are up. While overseas Filipino workers generally prefer townhouses or detached housing units in the suburbs, students and young professionals are more inclined to purchase a condo unit that will give them easy access to the city’s amenities.

A three-bedroom townhouse roughly an hour’s drive from the center can now have a tag price upwards of P2 million. For a little less than this, a buyer may opt for a studio unit at a mid-market condominium that is within walking distance of offices, schools, hospitals and shopping centers in the urban core.

Condo Living
As of October last year, 12 condo projects have been approved and issued licenses to sell by the Central Visayas regional office of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). This year, seven more have been granted development permits and issued temporary licenses while five other new projects have pending applications for preliminary approval and location clearance. 

Roy T. Lopez, HLURB regional director, said that the southern metropolis is seeing an unprecedented growth in the segment. “All the big-time developers from Manila are now in Cebu. Demand for condo is increasing because prices of raw land within Cebu City are rising and there are no longer big properties (for horizontal subdivision development) within the city,” he said. At least five hectares are needed for a subdivision development, he added.

Among the new projects with pending applications is twin-tower Horizon 101 along Gen. Maxilom (Mango) Ave., which is set to become Cebu’s tallest buildings. Its developer, Gaisano-owned Taft Property Venture Development Corp., hopes to launch the first skyscraper in a couple of months. The cost of constructing the 55-storey structure, which will yield at least 900 units, is pegged at P1.1 billion. Its studio units will carry a base price of P1.7 million. “This will be a new landmark in Cebu,” Mr. Lopez said. 

Holding a temporary license is The Residences, the first of three upscale condominium towers that Federal Land will build within the Marco Polo hotel complex in Nivel Hills. It will have 22 floors and 165 units, and is targeted for completion in 2013. The 25-storey Tower 2, temporarily called 2 Residences, was launched less than two weeks ago, said Federal Land Cebu sales manager Feliz John Peñascoza.

These ventures are matched by Ayala Land Premier and Alveo Land, both of which were issued development permits and temporary licenses two months ago.

The former is building its first condominium in Cebu, the ritzy 1016 Residences, at a cost of P1 billion. The 27-storey structure will rise within the 50-hectare Cebu Business Park, and its 109 units can be had for an average of P12 million each. 

Special homes, which come with a private pool, terrace or garden, will set one back by P40 million each. Bernard Vincent Dy, Ayala Land, Inc. senior vice president and head of Ayala Land Residential Business Group, has said that the project aims to introduce country club living on the island. Alveo Land’s first project in Cebu, the Sedona Parc, will stand a few meters behind 1016 Residences. These will complement another Ayala brand, Avida Towers Cebu, for which the firm has set aside a P1.2 billion budget. Composed of two 25-storey buildings at the Asiatown IT Park, it will have units priced at P1.6 million to P4.4 million.

Other projects that were issued temporary licenses were Lot 8 in Mabolo, Padgett Place near the U.P. Cebu campus, Apple One within Cebu Business Park and City Loft. The latter, a mid-range development that will rise along Gen. Maxilom Ave., will be the first of three 17-storey residential condos that Fuente Triangle will build. As in other Fuente Triangle projects, purchase of one of its units comes with a Club Ultima membership.

Meanwhile, homegrown firms Cebu Landmasters, Inc. and RIASJAC Development Corp. recently announced plans to construct the 16-storey One Baseline Place, whose units will be sold at P1.8 million to P3.5 million, at the Baseline Complex in two years.

Shopping Malls
Keeping up with the residential upswing is a surge in commercial developments. SM, for one, will spend at least P20 billion on two shopping malls–one in Consolacion and a 25-hectare complex at the South Road Properties (SRP)–even as it scouts for a location for its fourth retail structure in Cebu. The P800 million Consolacion mall will have a leasable space of 40,000 square meters, while the one at the SRP, SM’s third in Cebu and biggest in the Visayas, would have twice the size of SM City Cebu, currently the fourth largest SM mall in the country.

The developer is also drawing blueprints for several condominiums, a hotel and a church at the SRP, a 300-hectare greenfield development that was reclaimed by the Cebu city government.

Cebu Holdings, meanwhile, is investing P2.8 billion to expand Ayala Center Cebu. The extension will yield an additional leasable space of 36,000 square meters and bring in high-end merchants from Greenbelt 5 and Glorietta 4. Clavel G. Tongco, senior division head for Ayala Malls, said a market study showed that Cebu’s demographic is ready for these stores.

Pocket commercial developments are also being undertaken by local companies: RIASJAC recently finished redeveloping a prime property into One Mango arcade.