From palay trading to housing

From one basic human need to another.

Such was the journey of Bulacan-based businessman Rodolfo C. Kalalang, whose flourishing trade over the past decades had seen him become a bakery owner, a rice miller for about 20 years and, from the early ’90s up to today, a successful real estate developer who has been instrumental in helping many Bulakeños achieve their dreams of owning quality homes in secure communities.

While the founder of Rockavilla Realty & Development Corp. chose not to make such a huge clamor about the numerous subdivisions—spanning across different parts of Bulacan—they have steadfastly built throughout the years, these projects however have undoubtedly made a significant difference in the lives of the residents.

Beginnings

Even before the real estate firm was founded, Kalalang was already trying his hand at real estate, completing the 3-ha Rocka Village I in Guiguinto, Bulacan in 1989. This was according to his son, Rockavilla Realty president Redentor R. Kalalang, who also revealed that the name Rocka came from the initials of his father.

“My father completed his first real estate project in 1989 and at that time, I was still in college but I was already helping him out. Because of the success of Rocka Village I, on the same year he asked his long time friend Egmidio B. Ong, a Filipino-Chinese businessman from Bacolod, along with Romie A. Cortez, to venture into real estate with him and thus Rockavilla Realty was born,” the younger Kalalang said in an interview with Inquirer Property.

“My father has always been a wide reader so he has read about the many opportunities in real estate. He tried it out while we still had our rice milling business. It was fortunate that his first project was successful—in fact, the demand was so huge we only had a few units left to sell then. Fortunate also for me and my three other siblings as we were all born with a weak nose—we have asthma so we really can’t continue the rice milling business,” Kalalang explained.

The younger Kalalang recalled that their first few years were met with such an exceptional success that Rockavilla Realty was putting up one subdivision after another, with his father forming new subsidiaries and affiliates that would later prompt them to create a holding company that is the Rocka Group of Companies.

The older Kalalang—indefatigable that he is—was building his “personal” real estate projects in various locations in Bulacan as well as a 50-room hotel in Baguio City.

Their start, the younger Kalalang added, also fortunately coincided with the government then staunchly pushing for programs including the unified home lending program, meant to boost housing production in the country. Incidentally, the Philippines had its first housing boom from 1987 to 1992, with 400,000 housing units then delivered and mortgage loans taken out.

Challenges

Kalalang admitted that they had it fairly easy, serving a huge demand from Bulacan alone, providing Bulakeños not only quality homes, but also safe and secure communities that are near modern conveniences and key establishments. This was despite the fact that Rockavilla Realty has gone through—and survived—a number of economic boom-and-bust cycles that had seen many local businesses at those times shutting down.

“Even if there was a crisis, there was still demand because the need for housing is basic—the need will always be there so much so that when the country recovers from a crisis, we just bounce back. Also, we would like to attribute it to the fact that we always try our best to improve our product offering and after sales service,” Kalalang said.

“We have remained true to our goal from the time we first started Rockavilla. In this business, it’s not just about the profit nor is it about creating a house—it’s about creating a community. When you create a safe and secure community, it propels other industries to flourish as well and when this happens, you get to help more Filipinos beyond providing homes,” he added.

In fact, the main challenge for the company—as with any other developer, for that matter—is land acquisition and landbanking. He pointed out that it’s difficult to find large landholdings, say a 50-ha lot, owned by a single entity or person. Often is the case that you’ll have a great number of individuals and families owning parcels of this large lot—which meant difficulties in consolidating ownership and negotiating with all the land owners.

And it’s highly crucial for Rockavilla Realty to pursue landbanking activities to ensure a continuous supply that its brokers and agents can sell.

Lessons learned

Admittedly, the company had several misses, too.

According to Kalalang, they have learned over the years that while the subdivision association would eventually be responsible for the upkeep of the community, they would still need to install certain parameters at the very onset including what kind of commercial establishments would be allowed inside the development. This would help preserve the beauty of the community, ensure the safety of the residents and eventually assure residents of land value appreciation.

A developer, he added, should act as a parent to the community it develops.

“We learned our lesson the hard way then. That’s why we made sure to implement what we have learned in future projects to ensure continued order in the community. No matter how beautiful your property is, but if your community is not, it will drag down the value of your land,” Kalalang explained.

“Also now, we get to help scrutinize the blueprints, provide additional inputs, and find more cost efficient designs that will benefit of the residents. As an architect, I can help provide some insights of whether this design or that design is the best way to go about the project,” added Rockavilla Realty treasurer Arch. Marc Ryan A. Ong, who meanwhile took over his father’s post back in 2000.

But the most important thing that Kalalang and Ong both learned was that their employees were also instrumental in helping the company thrive over the past three decades.

“We are lucky to have people who have stayed with us through the years. Our average turnover here would be around 10 years,” Kalalang said. “That’s why we’re continuously developing our people—they run the company. Take care of the people and the people will take care of the company. It cannot be one-sided.”

Next generation

Today, the younger Kalalang and Ong are at the helm of the company with a vision to take care of and continue the legacy that their fathers have built. While both admit that they have large shoes to fill in given the exceptional success their fathers achieved throughout the three-decade history of the company, they are out to prove that there’s no stopping Rockavilla Realty.

Thus, on the company’s 30th year, Kalalang and Ong are looking beyond Bulacan for the next phase of Rockavilla’s growth and expansion including in areas like Cavite where opportunities are rife given the infrastructure projects and renewed interest in Manila’s bedroom community.

“We’d like to go out soon and explore more areas. We’d like to be elsewhere other than Bulacan. We want to see our company expanding in other provinces while still protecting the legacy of our fathers by ensuring that our homeowners are happy from having bought a Rockavilla home. We’d like to see them happy in the community that they are in and we would like to assure them that we would remain here for them,” Kalalang said.

“And even in Bulacan, we will continue expanding as we believe that our province is ready for more quality, upgraded homes they can pass on to the next generations,” he added.

“We are happy with how Rockavilla Realty is now performing and we hope we could continue this. We, the next generation at the helm of this property company, are now the caretakers and we will do our best to ensure the continuity of the business for the benefit of residents and even our future homebuyers,” Ong concluded.

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