Showing posts with label Real Estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Real Estate. Show all posts

Monday, June 15, 2009

Fresh Outlook on Philippine Real Estate for 2009 (part 2)

There have been some woes and slow growth recently in the real estate sector as the industry was affected with the current global financial crisis which was have written on the previous post back in February 2009. There have been major changes among the Business Process Outsourcing Companies (BPOs).

The task taken by government in keeping our country afloat has been monumental. During the recent speech by Gov. Amando Tetangco of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last April 14, 2009 on the occasion of Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce Annual General Membership held at Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Makati City mentioned that "no economy is immune from the effects of this crisis, but those which have built up buffers are more likely to fare better than others".

According to the 4th Quarter of 2008 Reports of Colliers International Philippines, in the past months shows that rising vacancy and inventories of office, commercial and residential especially on commercial business districts of Makati have reached around 2.6 percent. Movements of tenants elsewhere around or nearby these areas are on the rise. These actions should complement their needs, requirements, specifications in order to lower the costs of a companies' operational expenses compared to a high-rise buildings which are only suited for office settings due to their expected expansion and growth. Factors to be considered are power consumption, telecommunication equipment setup, shifting operations and others affected the buildings' suitability for these BPO companies. Moving to a more viable and amiable locations such as Clark Freeport (Pampanga), City of Sta. Rosa (Laguna), Quezon City, Cebu City and other nearby areas would benefits these other site from the rapid growth of the contact center industry.

A few weeks ago, Secretary Ralph Recto of the National Economic Development Agency has reported that the Philippines is in a collision course of near recession with growth of 0.4% on the first quarter of this year. With government expectation of a growth rate of 4.4% for the first quarter it turned out the slowly as the world recession is rearing its ugly head again. The government is taking steps on bending and curbing the mass lay-offs from happening by providing alternatives such as other jobs and livelihood for the poor such as Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program.

On foreign ownership of land in the Philippines, many suggested that government should open up shores of this country to foreigners in order to invest more creating more Foreign Direct Investments(FDIs). However, research done by the IBON Foundation reported that revising our laws as spearheaded by House Speaker Prospero Nograles would make the real estate prices skyrocket with the notion that the masses and middle class Filipinos will no longer be given the opportunity to buy or acquire property if this happens. The real estate industry needs regulation on acquisition if they are about to change the law limiting to 10% of the lands as disclosed by an anonymous real estate leader if the government and people are open to it.

On the brighter side, Banks are now offering low rates are getting lower now at 7.5 percent since January 2009. Home Mutual Development also known as PAG-IBIG has already lowered its interest from 7.5 percent to 11.5 percent. The lowest that a home lending government agency can offer. With these developments, refinancing of previous real estate bank loans can be done if a home buyer has a current loan mortgages in order to reduce and readjust the monthly amortization.

Despite the good news, the banking industry has become hesitant with the growing number of non-performing assets (bad assets) due to default or foreclosures by a borrower on properties and others. However for a real estate investor and speculator, this is a sign of a gold mine of new opportunities in a current global financial turmoil with growing number of these properties are located in highly populated and commercialized areas within the metropolis. Best time to buy is on a down market. Right now developers are encouraging potential buyers and investors to buy properties offering them more affordable longer and attractive payment schemes with lower interest rates at fixed terms from banks and other lending institution which is enticing indeed.


Copyright 2008-2009 - PinoyMoneyVantage

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Betting on Real Estate: Foreclosed Property Sector in the United States!







Foreclosure in America is high and rampant nowadays. But still even if the U.S. is in recession there are still a lot of ways to earn money through real estate which is the highest and lucrative among all the investments you can think of. Right now property inventories are high and you can still flip lots of it as long you have extra cash on your sleeves with the growing demand of properties coming from other nations such as Canada which is least affected with the financial meltdown. Canadian economy is still resilient and in tip top shape compared to their neighboring America because less credit fall out. An example of Canadians moving down south to America especially in Las Vegas, Nevada wherein the prices are hitting rock bottom as what the video shown above. Other nationalities that are paving their way to the U.S. soil are the mainland Chinese who have the money and resources to tour and venture in America.

Las Vegas is a sin city or sin capital of the world but indeed even if there are no angels around in this heaven on earth. The real estate in this place is lucrative once the ailing economy recovers in a matter of months to years. President-elect Barack Obama later report his plan of creating a stimulus package in the ailing economy and in order to spur the once booming America back to its knees one step at a time. As an investor and a real estate broker I am hopeful that the world would become vibrant again and somehow will manage to survive the gloom over the dark clouds this 2009.

What about us, Global Pinoy or Filipinos? We can still manage to buy a property in the United States as long as you have the ample amount of funds in buying that dream home in their soil plus it is a very good investment and a plus if you are trying to impress the immigration official if you plan to migrate in America.

Included also in this blog write up the history of the credit crunch in 2007 and how it affected America and in the World as explained on CNN.

See the second part of this segment.





Copyright 2008-2009 - PinoyMoneyVantage

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Ayala Land wins Euromoney’s Real Estate tilt








Ayala Land has once again proved its mettle among the best property developers in the country as it bagged the “Best Overall Developer in the Philippines” award, among other category awards from the esteemed 2008 Liquid Real Estate Awards powered by Euromoney. The latter is a trusted resource on global financial markets and the award is the outcome of a survey conducted among financial institutions and real estate investors by its niche publication Liquid Real Estate.






Liquid Real Estate, known as the “voice of the real estate industry” around the world, capitalized on their access to various property markets in order to sieve the best and brightest among industry players.






This year, Ayala Land was vested with the following recognition:







Best Residential Developer in the Philippines


Best Retail/Shopping Developer in the Philippines


Best Office/Business Developer in the Philippines


Best Industrial/Warehouse Developer in the Philippines


Best Leisure/Hotel Developer in the Philippines


Best Mixed-Use Developer in the Philippines


Best Property Manager in the Philippines






In an email to Ayala Land, Euromoney’s head of Middle East and Asia, William Powell, expressed his congratulations to the company for winning the award, revealing that, “competition is extremely tough for these awards and therefore poll winners richly deserve the accolade.”






A global awards dinner was set in London last October 2, 2008.













Copyright 2008-2009 - PinoyMoneyVantage

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Real Estate Investing in Tough Times - a short talk with Rex Mendoza

August 6, We went to Manila on a business trip with my mom and younger sister (an apprentice and is learning the ropes of real estate). She recently finished her studies and just arrived fresh from the U.S. after a 3 week vacation mixed with business and pleasure. I was able to join them on the 2nd General Brokers Assembly for the second quarter of Alveo Land Corp., An Ayala Land company, which was formerly known as Community Innovations, Inc or CII for short. We were invited by one of the Brokers network coordinator the other day and the venue will take place at Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Alveo Land Corp (formerly Community Innovation, Inc.) was a young upstart company of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) back in the early 2000 and has been in the forefront on the mixed residential developments ranging from horizontal to vertical projects wherein one of their top selling properties are Two Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, The Columns in Makati CDB just to name a few of their projects has achieved P 60 Billion pesos through its combined sales of their project in the whole Philippines with achieving a first quarter profit of % by Ayala Land Inc as reported by Mr. Robert Lao, deputy head of sales of Alveo Land Corp.

Mr. Dan Abando, president of Ayala Land Inc. together with Mr. Rex Mendoza, Senior Vice President of Ayala Land Inc. were present on the meeting together with the movers and shakers of the company, their accredited real estate brokers and their respective companies that are business partners with the Ayala Land. The top 10 brokers were presented and given awards and gifts for their support with Ayala's vision of developing the landscape and venturing into real estate which gave them lots of opportunities.

Mr. Rex Mendoza gave a small talk on Real Estate Investing in Tough Times in which he gave some details to help the sales people achieve their goals of selling to customers on bearish market and boosting sales of their properties. "The people are capable of buying anything but they are afraid of uncertainties lying ahead with dark clouds" as what Mr. Mendoza said. You see, customers are on a "wait and see effect" of the economy.



Monthly Peso per US $ Rate (January 1997 - June 2008)
LATEST: P 44.281 /US$ (June 2008)
HIGH: P 56.341/US$ (October 2004)
LOW: P 24.2648/US$ (December 1994)


Interbank Call Loan Rate
(January 1991 to June 2008)
Latest: 5.27 % (June 2008)
High: 21.1 % (January 1998)
Low: 6.9 % (July 2003)


Sources: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas


91-day T-Bill Rates (Updated 18 June 2008)
Latest: 3.67 % (January 2008)
High: 15.8 % (November 2000)
Low: 4.4 % (May 2002)

Mr. Mendoza recently showed some slide presentations adapted from Anton Periquet's presentations to Ayala's top brass a few weeks ago (Anton Periquet is a Deutsche Regis Partners Country Strategist). Just citing an example from last year, A lot of people in 2007 doubled their net worth overnight upon investing in stock market, mutual funds and others during the bull run of early 2007 but somehow upon reaching the late 2007 to the early 2008 a lot of the same people who invested were left with one half to one third of their net worth to losing streak. In 2007, people are thinking that they are rich because of their purchasing power but at present times people are belt tightening or afraid to invest, he asked us if the "Good Times are Over?".

People tend to ask the same old question of What now?, What do next? So people backtrack and not engage again meaning market needs excuses for movement and ask for stimulus on which inflexion point occur. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index is signalling another economic inflexion point. Mr. Mendoza reiterated that history repeats itself setting an example of 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (or Asian Flu of 1997) wherein Asian tiger economies like Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and other countries where hit hard but manage to survive the tough times and make a rebound in the process. He also pointed the psychological problem of the investor on How Long this problem will stay? Wherein there are two pre-requisites that should make the world economy stabilize on which 1.) Global Risk Appetite Normalize; 2.) Domestic Trigger Surfaces.

Along the meeting, he discussed the Virtous Cycle Unwinds that affected the world wherein there were two shocks experienced globally in late 2007 to present times. First of all is the U.S. SUBPRIME CRISIS brought about by CREDIT CRUNCH which was brought about by bad practice of lending and financing wherein they lent their money to those with poor credit (see through Investopedia). The second is OIL, in the past few months there have rising fuel prices but somehow a few days ago, the oil market and trading have recently decrease to US$ 115 per barrel and I am hoping it will go down sharply. The two shocks affected our real estate buyers from abroad specifically the Filipino-Americans who were our main investors but here in the Philippines and other overseas Filipinos from other parts of the world are not affected by the U.S. Subprime Crisis because our local banks are asking for primary collaterals (land titles, bank certificates, stock certificates etc) before issuing and approving a client a loan (very strict rules) so it is a different story from what is happening in the U.S. wherein the lenders can lend you money as long you are breathing with no collateral before the housing bubble burst.

There is a growing consciousness among the public in investing in real estate to hedge against inflation wherein a property is still the best option in long terms with capital appreciation. Right now mortgage rates from banks remains low with major banks competing in giving the lowest rates to potential customers, Peso - Dollar Exchange Rate is still stable and positive economic outlook in 2009 and Filipinos as most Asians regard property as a primary investments.

There maybe crisis in these rough times but some people see opportunities in times ahead.

"THERE IS NO FUTURE IN SHORT TERM".


Copyright 2008-2009 - PinoyMoneyVantage

Friday, July 25, 2008

The Power Broker in Me: Putting back Real Estate back on Top

I had my few months hiatus of not being a real estate broker. It was a soul searching time for me as I finished the 2 month Registered Financial Planners Course given by Registered Financial Planning Institute - Philippines two months ago and still kept practicing.


Those months were a fulfilling moment for me in updating with new trends in medical and scientific research, learning new trades, knowing more on different types of investments and meeting new people as potential clients. Even if we are experience the downtrend in the stock market as in we are in a windfall of world recession as the U.S. is still coping up with its own problems which affected the world and us feeling the brunt of higher oil prices with inflation rate staggering at 11.4% from last month. It does hurt the pockets of consumers of all walks of life.

To admit the truth, the real estate industry felt the pinch with America as its rich market before for Filipino-Americans in selling properties have made an abrupt stop and so most major Philippine developers put their sights on other places where Filipinos thrive. They have had a second look on the European and Middle Eastern Market segment targeting Overseas Filipino Workers there and also the local Philippine market. Feeling worrisome on the downtrend in sales that I need to find alternatives of producing money other than relying from my fixed-income job which is not enough to sustain my lifestyle.

Real Estate has become a bread and butter for some older folks in the trade. I on the other hand, have a career and real estate is a part-time work for me. In two years time, I might go full-time and quit the healthcare job once I have established myself in taking over the family business.

I find it amazing as I become equipped with the words from these motivational speakers who are at the same time fellow real estate brokers from different chapters of REBAP and made millions in just a few months through real estate selling. I find it inspirational to see and hear them talk and believe in their principles even met the oldest real estate professional who is already in her late 60s who happens to have lots millions on different transaction and deals from her small beginnings in the 80s and in the present times. The topics on the seminar are relatively needed for the participants to apply these experiences in real life especially in the sales and marketing aspect in being a real estate brokers. The speakers also added new tools in creatively selling properties through the use of word of mouth, the internet and advertisements.

Another inspirational lecture given by Mr. Ricardo "Dindo" Raymundo, team manager of Alaska Aces Basketball Team. He given us some thoughts on his experiencing from managing the best basketball team through his corporate knowledge and business wisdom which kept this team the among the top teams in Philipppine Basketball Association (PBA). He also shown us a video clip of Nick Vujicic - No Arms, no legs, no worries.


Copyright 2008-2009 - PinoyMoneyVantage

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Think Rich Pinoy Experience



I recently have attended the February 17, 2008 Think Rich Pinoy Seminar at PhilAm Life Building in Ma. Orosa Street, Ermita, Manila. It was an event I cannot forget that changed my life. Wealth building through real estate by flipping foreclosed properties is one shot deal that can generate income for you and your loved ones. There are pros and cons in real estate but this one could get you rich in no time at all.

Dr. Gamboa and others like him have dream of making one million rich Filipinos by 2010. It maybe impossible but with proper attitude and mentoring anyone can be a millionaire by that time. "We do not have to go abroad and keep our country's economy afloat with our skilled OFWs leaving our shores and working hard to both ends meet, we can make entreprenuers of our OFWs as what Dr. Gamboa", said in his statement.

Financial education through real estate and other income generating schemes can arm every Filipinos with the knowledge of wealth building and at the same create passive income for their benefit. The investments made will work for them in no time.

One of the most notable real investor in this type of business was Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad and co-author of other Rich Dad series of books who inspired Dr. Gamboa into this type of business and serves as his inspiration in creating a book called "Think Rich Pinoy". Think Rich Pinoy is an adapted version of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Filipinos to understand. The principle of flipping property and its concept are still the same but simplified.

I have read the book since last year and at the same time bought one of his book follow up, Grow Rich Pinoy, which emphasizes on flipping properties with little or no money at all plus with the help of course of rehabbers, lenders and other private investors by using Other People's Money (OPM) concept.


I have met other people who are still in the rat race who want to be investors and entrepreneurs and owning their own business. Dr. Gamboa emphasizes the empowerment of every Filipinos to financial freedom. It was a good thing that I met Dr. Larry Gamboa, Ph.D. himself on the flesh and maybe in the future would be a future franchisee of Think Rich Pinoy.




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