Roxas group puts real estate stamp on Tagaytay

ROXACO SVP Santiago Elizalde

Among the companies lustily cheering the significant improvement in the road and toll networks connecting the National Capital Region to the southern provinces are large-scale real estate developers such as Roxaco Land Corp.

Because travel time from the subdivisions in Metro Manila, where the well-heeled crowd reside, to popular getaways such as Tagaytay City and Nasugbu, Batangas has been cut by at least 40 percent, the viability of projects positioned as second or vacation homes for the high net worth market has vastly improved.

Roxaco senior vice president Santiago R. Elizalde tells Business Monday in an interview that in the case of its Anya Resort and Residences project in Tagaytay City, as much as 80 percent of the lots with an average size of 400 square meters have already been purchased, with the homeowners ready to start building this month.

Given the brisk pace of lot sales, Roxaco is gearing up to work on the second phase of the project, which involves the development of a 120-unit condotel, with units ranging from 60 to 90 square meters that the buyers can choose to turn over to the company for leasing to other tenants.

Elizalde says the company has not yet pinned down the selling price for the condominium units, but Roxaco should be ready to start marketing the property by the third quarter of the year and he expects the same warm response from the target buyers here and abroad who are all members of the elite millionaires club.

“The demand for secondary homes has been steadily increasing,” explains Elizalde, “and the buyers are now looking at these homes as not just vacation homes for themselves but also as good investments.”

Elizalde adds that Tagaytay City is a favorite destination for those looking for vacation homes because the chartered city is not too far from Metro Manila, and yet far enough to get some deserved peace and quiet and enjoy that cool temperature.

ANYA Resorts and Residences promises exclusivity and peace and quiet to home buyers and guests.

Anya Resort and Residences, a partnership between Roxaco and landowner VJ Properties, covers 5.7 hectares and will have only 48 lots. Residents can choose from three Asian-inspired signature home designs that seek to integrate the outdoors with the residences.

There will also be an Anya Resort to be managed by Fuego Hotels, a hotel management company with Davao Pearl Farm and 7 Stones in Boracay under its wing. A limited number of suite and villa accommodations will be made available to maintain that air of exclusivity in the development.

Elizalde admits that there are many competing projects in Tagaytay City, but what Anya Resort and Residences offers is exclusivity, since it is a small community, and good old peace and quiet. There are also fewer open lot projects in the area compared to condominium developments.

“We are giving people an alternative. The attraction of open lot developments over condominiums is still there. And there’s also the whole privacy story,” says Elizalde, adding that the seclusion of Anya Resort—as it is not in the busy ridge area of Tagaytay City—adds to its appeal.

Then there’s the fact that Roxaco, a member of the Roxas group of companies, has proven itself in the upscale market through such developments as the Terrazas and Peninsula de Punta Fuego projects in Batangas. Anya Resort is its maiden first-class residential resort community in Tagaytay City.

Having a proven name and concept becomes even more important at this time when many companies—even those who are not traditionally into real estate—are cashing in on the real estate boom, thus making the real estate sector even more competitive than it already is.

For Roxaco, Elizalde says that the company has decided to take a more aggressive stance and will position itself mainly in three areas: first homes, such as the affordable communities in Nasugbu and Balayan in Batangas; second homes such as the Anya Residences and then finally tourism, through Anya Resort and then new developments in San Juan in Batangas and other areas in the country with great potential for tourism development.

The market is wide open, says Elizalde, and Roxaco has every intention to be right there in the mix.