Cebu property poised for upswing

(Conclusion)

This is the conclusion of my piece on Cebu’s exciting residential landscape. It’s worth noting that more projects are due to be turned over in Cebu over the next few years. This should give Cebu investors and end-users more options.

Cebu condominium supply to grow by a fifth in 2026

Colliers recorded the completion of 10,500 new condominium units in Cebu in 2023. The notable completions include Avida Land’s Avida Towers Riala, Cebu Landmaster’s Mivela Garden Residences, Casa Mira Towers Guadalupe, and Casa Mira Towers Mandaue. We also recorded the completion of Thyme Residences, the first condominium project in Minglanilla.

We see substantial completion across Metro Cebu from 2024 to 2025. By 2026, Colliers expects Cebu’s condominium stock to reach 93,100 units with the average annual completion of 5,000 new units from 2024 to 2026. Projects from national developers in the pipeline include Rockwell Land’s The Villas at Aruga, Megaworld’s Pearl Global Residences, 8990’s Urban Deca Homes Banilad (2 towers), and Arthaland’s Lucima. These projects, classified as affordable to luxury in terms of total contract price (TCP) per unit, are dispersed across Cebu Business Park, Mactan Newtown, Lapu-Lapu City, and Mandaue City.

Affordable to lower mid-income projects dominate

In 2023, Colliers recorded the take-up of 5,620 condominium units in Cebu, down 33 percent year on year (YOY). The affordable to lower mid-income projects (P2.5 million to P7 million) accounted for about 62 percent of total condominium units sold in the pre-selling market during the year.

In our view, the demand for these segments is partly sustained by investors who plan to rent out their units to outsourcing employees. These segments should also receive sustained demand from local investors as well as Filipinos working abroad who are looking for viable investment options.

The affordable to lower mid-income segments also dominated the take-up for house-and-lot (H&L) projects in Cebu, accounting for 55 percent of horizontal units sold in 2023. In our opinion, take-up for these units is also supported by remittance-receiving households, especially as Cebu is part of the Central Visayas region, one of the top sources of deployed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in 2022.

Reaping the benefits of a recovering economy

Overall, we see Cebu reaping the benefits of a recovering property market. With the largest condominium stock outside of Metro Manila, Cebu is well prepared to capture post-pandemic demand.

Colliers projects a recovery in residential demand beyond 2024. This should be supported by regional economic growth, the stable inflow of OFW remittances, and sustained business process outsourcing (BPO) investments, with Cebu cornering more than half of office space deals closed outside of Metro Manila in 2023.

Developers should further explore opportunities in the market, but these strategies should revolve around the continued offering of attractive promos and flexible payment schemes as well as exploration of alternative locations for residential development covering condominium, house-and-lot, and lot-only developments.

More pronounced product differentiation

With more projects in the pipeline covering vertical and horizontal developments, Colliers believes it is essential for Cebu developers to further differentiate themselves to stand out in a fiercely competitive market and satisfy the demands of discerning and astute investors.

Homegrown developers with sizable parcels of developable land should explore the viability of forming joint ventures with national and even foreign developers. We expect more projects that will incorporate green and sustainable features, more open spaces, as well as upscale amenities.

Developers should also test the upscale to luxury markets, especially now that investors and end-users are starting to gravitate toward more expensive projects with the Cebu market’s constantly rising affluence. Colliers data show that it’s not just the condominium projects that have constantly posted price increases. Prices of house-and-lot and lot-only units have also increased across Cebu.

The Colliers Philippines team is looking forward to lining up more briefings in Cebu. It’s interesting to see what the future holds and the vast opportunities that national and homegrown players are planning to tap in Cebu in the years to come. I myself am excited for our next Cebu rendezvous!