What keeps housing market humming these days? According to the country’s largest and leading housing, real estate and condominium developers’ organization, there now exists a hiring spree as well as a steady flow of remittances from abroad.
“Cash remittances posted an all-time high of $25.767 billion (P119 billion) in 2015, up by 4.6 percent from $24.628 billion (P114 billion) in 2014. For this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is projecting a 4 percent growth in remittances for 2016 to $26.3 billion (P120 billion),” said Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) national president Rodel Racadio.
Moreover, Racadio said the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry has grown to be another major source of dollar income for the Philippine economy, citing Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines’ recent announcement.
Last year, the industry generated 1.2 million direct jobs and $22 billion (P101 billion) in revenues.
“The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also believes that should the current growth rates continue, the IT-BPM industry will overtake overseas Filipino worker remittances by next year, meaning parents will soon no longer need to leave the country to provide for their families with millions of BPO jobs available in many parts of the Philippines,” said SHDA chair Armenia Ballesteros.
Great opportunity
With these positive developments, SHDA believes this year’s 3rd SHDA Housing Expo would be a great opportunity for Filipino families to finally buy their own homes.
The 3rd SHDA Housing Expo will be held on Aug. 25-28 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City.
According to Jonathan Lu, SHDA national treasurer and this year’s chair of the housing fair committee, the invited guests include Marikina City Rep. Romero Federico Quimbo; Angel Ojastro III, secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council; Francisco San Gabrielle, consultant of the National Housing Authority; Dr. Felixberto Bustos Jr., president of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp.; Lucita Reyes, governor of the Board of Investments; Darlene Berberabe, president and CEO of Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund); and Mitch Dumlao, GM of Ayala Malls.
“Home buying is largely about families and individuals feeling confident about their financial status. Now that the economy has improved significantly and source of income [is] assured, they can now choose from various offers of our participating developers,” said John Paul Dy, SHDA chair of the ways and means committee.
Exhibitors
Dy said exhibitors during the housing fair include 8990 Housing Development Corp. (New Ideas Verbalize Inc.), Axeia Development Corp., Ayala Land, Breezewoods, Boysen Philippines, Chinabank, CHMI Land Inc., Citihomes, Davies, DDC Land, DMCI Homes, Duraville, Filinvest, Hausland, Holcim, Honeycomb Builders, Jacinto Color Steel and James Hardie Philippines.
Other exhibitors are Lamudi Philippines, Lumina Homes, Masaito, Matimco Inc., PA Properties, PDB Properties, Phinma Properties, Prominence Properties, Property Co. of Friends, Pueblo de Oro, Robinsons Banking Corp., SM Development Corp., Steeltech and Suntrust Properties.
Support gov’t housing
“The SHDA Housing Expo is one of the many efforts we do in support of the government housing program. During this four-day event, potential homebuyers could avail themselves of the various promos, incentives and special pricing schemes that participating developers are now offering,” said Racadio.
He said the warm reception SHDA members expect from homebuyers in the coming housing expo will surely resonate in the upcoming 25th SHDA National Developers Convention happening from Sept. 22 to 23 at the Iloilo Convention Center, Iloilo City.
“We need to address the country’s housing backlog that currently stands at 5.5 million. We need the cooperation of all the stakeholders in order to create an environment that would encourage homebuying. After all, the housing market is extremely important because housing usually represents a household’s biggest single purchase, and a house represents the largest single item of consumer wealth,” said Racadio.