The Chamber of Real Estate Brokers Associations Inc. early this year announced that three Southern cities made it to the Top 9 “trending cities” for the most likely urban locations for township developments by real estate firms. The three southern cities are Bacolod, Davao and Cebu.
Bacolod placed 6th on the list. “In mid-2015, Lamudi [a website that “helps individuals … to find their ideal home, land or commercial property … by providing the most relevant information in the market”] data showed that Bacolod had become among the most popular cities among online property hunters. In fact, real estate giant Megaworld announced in late 2015 that it was building two integrated townships in the city (the 50-hectare Northill Gateway and the 34-hectare The Upper East), while Ayala Land has sealed an agreement with the provincial government of Negros Occidental to build the mixed-use Capitol Central,” CREBA said.
Davao ranked 7th. CREBA said the city “remains southern Philippines’ economic and business center, and one of the most searched cities in the Lamudi website in 2015. Its population is projected to balloon to 1.83 million by 2020. Davao is also consistently among the most searched by online property hunters, and the sixth and third most searched city by property hunters based in the United States and Saudi Arabia, respectively, according to Lamudi data.”
Cebu City was Top 8. It “is one of Tholons’ [a “full-service strategic advisory firm for global outsourcing and investments”] Top 10 outsourcing destinations in the world (and second in the Philippines behind Metro Manila). According to CB Richard Ellis Philippines, exciting expansions and new developments are coming in over the next few years. In 2015 alone, two new large malls opened in the city, SM Seaside City Cebu and Robinsons Galleria Cebu. SM Seaside alone has an area of 10-15 hectares devoted to commercial development, similar to the E-com office towers in the [Mall of Asia] complex, while Robinsons Galleria will have entire floors dedicated to BPO offices.
The other cities listed were Cavite (1), Quezon City (2), Makati (3), Taguig (4), Pasay (5) and Muntinlupa (9).