The national chapter of the Paris-based International Real Estate Federation is upbeat on posting a quick recovery from the current slump in the property market.
Former FIABCI-Philippines chairman and now president Dr. Reghis Romero II cited the country’s continued infrastructure buildup, low interest rate regime and the ongoing COVID vaccination campaign as the contributing factors to the market’s fast recovery from the slump.
Citing a survey by the FIABCI World Council of Experts covering 226 cities across the globe, Romero said the Philippines was not as badly hurt as its Southeast Asian neighbors such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia that suffered price declines in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
“In fact, the Philippines’ house prices remained in positive territory in both periods, rising by 1.8 percent in 2019-2020 and 5.6 percent in 2020-2021 as shown by the FIABCI survey. Thus, in Metro Manila, price recovery for agricultural land and detached houses is optimistically projected in as early as September, low-rise residences in November, and residential subdivisions in December, all in 2021,” Romero said.
Expected to recover next year are the prices of housing and apartment rentals in January; owner-occupied apartments or condominium units, urban lands and industrial properties in February; shopping outlets and resorts in May; office spaces in June; and hotels and retirement facilities in August.
Such projections, according to FIABCI chairman emeritus Florentino Dulalia Jr., are among the agendas and scenarios to be discussed by the members and officers of FIABCI-Philippines in its forthcoming annual conference on Oct. 15.
“The full-day conference will culminate with FIABCI-Philippines’ Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards Night, which is held yearly to honor the industry’s top achievers, keep raising the benchmark of excellence, and instigate continued development of technologies to meet the demands of the times,” said Dulalia, who was FIABCI World president from June 2020 to May 2021.
The much-coveted awards will go to the winners in 16 categories such as environmental (rehabilitation/conservation), heritage (restoration), master plan, hotel, convention, industrial, office, public infrastructure/amenities, high-rise and low-rise residential, resort, retail, rural, specialized and sustainable development.
Founded in 1951 in Paris, France, FIABCI has around 2,300 regular and a million associate members in 70 countries, including the Philippines, all experiencing market challenges on account of COVID-related measures such as telecommuting or work-from-home arrangements, last-mile distribution or door-to-door deliveries, and travel restrictions.
“Such measures have contributed to a substantial decrease in office footprint and consumer traffic, resulting in reduced productivity that affects trade and commerce and the national economies altogether on a global scale,” Romero said.
Consequently, FIABCI-Philippines is having a bias for future-ready property developments and relevant technological breakthroughs in construction, urban planning and architectural design concepts.
“Those innovations may include COVID-preventive features such as offices with air filtration devices, doorless public toilets and washrooms, touchless elevators and light switches, compartmentalized or segmentized factory production lines, acrylic- or glass-partitioned office desks, and intuitive floor layout for social distancing in both corporate and public premises, among others,” said FIABCI chairman and former president Architect Nestor Mangio.
“Once again, we have to rely on the resiliency and creativity of the Filipinos, and the power of prayer that we, as a Christian nation, is gifted with,” Romero said.