Biz Buzz: P1.2-M Valentine’s dinner

EVERY year, the country’s wealthiest golfers and country club members gather for the Golden Tee tournament at the country’s priciest golf club, the Manila Golf and Country Club in Makati City.

As fate would have it, this year’s Golden Tee was held last Saturday, Valentine’s Day eve, followed by a dinner event which had, as its centerpiece, a highly anticipated raffle for members. This year’s main raffle price was a Mitsubishi ASX crossover SUV and all members were hoping that Lady Luck would smile upon them that night.

And, as fate would have it, the big winner of that evening’s raffle was former Ayala executive and former Energy Secretary Delfin Lazaro. But no sooner had his name been called out when people in the room realized that Mr. Lazaro was nowhere to be found. He had, in fact, brought his wife to dinner not too far away at The Fort in Bonifacio Global City and, alas, presence was required to win the prize.

Now, in days past, Mr. Lazaro could have easily reached Manila Golf from BGC in 5 minutes, but vehicular traffic in Metro Manila is terrible nowadays, and McKinley Ave. is no exception. So the crossover SUV that would have added to Mr. Lazaro’s vehicle collection was re-raffled off, and this time, the winner was former Tanduay Corp. president Wilson Young who was, thankfully, present.

We’re not sure if Mr. Young has already thanked Mr. Lazaro for the new Mitsubishi ASX but we’re almost sure the latter has mentally added the SUV’s P1.2-million sticker price to the cost of his Valentine’s dinner with his wife.

But hey, even if Lady Luck didn’t quite smile at Mr. Lazaro that evening, we’re sure Cupid did. Or would he rather have the brand new SUV? Daxim L. Lucas

Speaking of which…

WHILE we’re on the topic of cars being raffled off, Biz Buzz learned that the opposite thing happened during the Christmas party of the Lucio Tan group two months ago.

The grand raffle prize—a nice Toyota sedan—was up for grabs and when the name of the winner was read out, lo and behold, it was no other than the sister of the Kapitan.

As what usually happens when bosses or more affluent people win raffles, the crowd started taunting the winner and asking her to waive the prize so that other people could get another chance at winning the car.

But Kapitan’s sister would have none of it. There was no waiving this prize, and she proceeded to claim the car, period.

The upside, we were told, is that she proceeded to sell the brand new Toyota and donated the proceeds to her favorite charity, which hands out scholarships to underprivileged children. Nice.

Going forward, however, the word from within the group is that Mr. Tan is now considering a rule that disqualifies his relatives from winning the grand prize at their annual holiday parties.

Of course, they may still win in the consolation prize rounds, for whatever that’s worth. Daxim L. Lucas

Hot cribs

WHEN a prospective homebuyer goes online to look for real estate assets to buy in this country, populous Quezon City is top of mind, based on data from online real estate portal Lamudi Philippines.

A Lamudi survey conducted in 2015 showed that more than half (55.05 percent) of online respondents cited Metro Manila as their preferred area for property purchase, with Quezon City being the most popular city (19.47 percent), followed by Makati (8.65 percent), and Manila (8.41 percent).

The popularity of Quezon City is due to the huge selection of property assets available in this city at varying price points, from the more affordable units in Fairview to the pricey homes in New Manila and Loyola Heights.

The average home price in Quezon City—home to some of the country’s top universities—is P14.75 million. This is cheaper than Makati’s P217.3 million, Muntinlupa’s P55.88 million, Taguig’s P34.37 million, Mandaluyong’s P21.08 million, Pasig’s P18.96 million and San Juan’s P17.66 million.

It is more expensive to buy a house in Quezon City, however, than in Parañaque City, where the average price is P12.18 million.

Based on Lamudi’s research, 10 cities in the Philippines now have an average home price exceeding P10 million, including these eight cities in Metro Manila—Makati (1st), Muntinlupa (2nd), Taguig (3rd), Mandaluyong (4th), Pasig (5th), San Juan (sixth), Quezon City (8th) and Parañaque (10th).

Only two cities outside Metro Manila made it to the list: Cebu, P15.03 million (7th) and Tagaytay, P13.35 million (9th place). Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

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