Location, location, location.
If you ask any real estate agent worth his salt about the three most important factors in considering a purchase, no doubt that this will be the standard answer. Similarly, a wise buyer’s other considerations can only come after the first three most important requirements have been satisfied: location, location, location.
But why is location so crucial in real estate? The short answer, ultimately, is that this is what real estate is all about.
Indeed, most of the attributes—such as a great view, strategic value, price, fertility, accessibility—of any particular piece of property are just a function of where it is located.
Throughout history, endless wars have been fought to determine who takes control, or who owns, these attributes. A military strategist, for example, will always go for the high ground, while a farmer’s first consideration will be proximity to a water source.
Moving into a big city only makes the primacy of a good location more, not any less, important. And since more people are getting crammed into less and less space, location isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.
With a burgeoning population coupled with the continuing influx of people from rural to urban areas, there will always be a high premium attached to the best located properties.
But how can you tell what makes a great location, especially given a plethora of choices? What makes a location stand out more than others?
While there are probably as many answers as there are property choices, here are the top three objective hallmarks of a great location.
Convenience
It makes no sense to live in a luxurious home if you have to spend four hours everyday just to get there from work.
A great location should be accessible and close to other places that matter in your daily life—school, office, shops, restaurants, church and other places where you and your friends can hang out and simply have fun.
Luckily, such convenience is becoming more accessible to a lot of people. With townships such as Megaworld’s McKinley Hill, living, working, playing, and learning in a self-contained community makes enduring the daily grind of traffic a thing of the past. In this sense, convenience is the ultimate luxury, even compared to an expensive home or a fancy car.
Value for money
A great location has to offer value for money. And while it may be true that a great location comes at a price, the best location doesn’t necessarily have to be the priciest.
A one-bedroom unit at The Bellagio, for example, will give you the same breath-taking view of the Manila Golf as a six-bedroom manor in Forbes park, but without the hefty price tag. Moreover, this one-bedroom home affords you all the amenities you’d normally expect in a multi-million peso mansion.
If you factor in its younger and more dynamic neighborhood, with world class restaurants and shops practically just outside your door, a location like this is simply nonpareil.
Prestige
Any location has the potential to be good. But for a location to be great, it has to have some prestige. It doesn’t help as much, for example, to be the prettiest house in a shoddy neighborhood as to be a pretty house in the prettiest, safest and most secure neighborhood.
For example, living in a residential tower that is right in front of the country’s biggest lifestyle destination, The Palace in Uptown Bonifacio, and close to the newly opened Uptown Mall as well as the British, Japanese and American international schools adds prestige and luster to the location.
Noli D. Hernandez is the senior vice president for sales and marketing of Megaworld Corp. He handles residential projects in Fort Bonifacio and Mactan Newtown in Cebu.