Philippines' Ayala Land to venture into economic housing dev't

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Thursday, October 01, 2009; Posted: 02:52 AM

MANILA, Oct 01, 2009 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- Ayala Land Inc. (PSE:ALI), the property arm of conglomerate Ayala Corp., will develop a 20-hectare lot near the Sta. Rosa, Laguna-Tagaytay area with an estimated development cost of P2 billion (US$42.2 million).

This was revealed by Jaime Ysmael, senior vice-president and chief finance officer of the Ayala Land Inc., to reporters at the launch of the Certificate of Real Estate Investment Finance (CREIF) program.

He said the new development would start in the first half of next year.

Ysmael said their participation into the economic housing category is largely due to the huge demand for this market segment.

"This is the kind of development that would address the needs of the 34 per cent of the Filipino households," Ysmael said.

ALIs kind of development has been mostly catering the lower, middle and upper class. But it has not participated in the economy segment of the housing sector.

According to Ysmael, this new development would offer row houses or single attached units between 40 to 60 square meters each with a price range of P600,000 to P1.5 million.

The targeted market are those households with combined earnings of between P15,000 to P50,000 a month.

Buyers can also avail of the Pag-ibig financing aside from bank financing.

Ysmael said only 10 per cent of their buyers pay in cash, 30 per cent through bank financing and the rest are in-house financing.

Most of the ALI developments are located in the southern part of Metro Manila, although Ysmael said they are also looking at a new area in the north.