The number of millionaires in the United Kingdom will rise by 400 percent in the next few years and the Philippines is already reaping the rewards, a recent survey says.
“The number of British people investing in overseas real estate has increased dramatically in recent years, with some agents in the Philippines claiming that four in 10 of their buyers are from the UK, compared to just one in 10 a few years ago,” says a statement from marketing firm PLC Global Filipino, citing a study conducted by UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research.
“If recent surveys are an accurate indication of the future, then Filipino realtors might be seeing an even higher percentage of Brits buying from them in the near future,” the firm adds.
Commenting on the findings of the study, which suggests that the number of British millionaires will rise dramatically from 376,000 to 1,700,000 in the near future, the Philippine-based condo hotel marketing group points out that the number of British citizens in Manila and Cebu has increased noticeably in the past few years.
The increase in the number of British investments in Philippine real estate has prompted the British diplomatic officials to acquire a large tract of land in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Metro Manila, where they will build a new embassy.
“While we do expect to see an even higher proportion of British residents in the Philippines, the fact that there is going to be four times the number of millionaires doesn’t mean that there will be four times the number of people looking to buy in the Philippines,” PLC Global Filipino clarifies.
The firm explains, though, that foreigners looking for property investments in the Philippines for retirement purposes can enjoy quite a number of advantages, among which are lower cost of living, housing, food, and labor.
“At the moment, a standard one-bedroom condominium can be purchased for around $60,000, or 32,500 pounds. Where can you find a 350 square foot flat in the heart of central London for only 25,000 pounds and then get up to 18 percent per annum return of investments from rental returns, tax free,” says Beth Collingz, director of the company.
“These figures probably seem crazy to London property buyers unless they remember the prices of flats and apartments back in the late 1970s,” she adds.
Collingz, who used to live in South Kensington before settling down in the Philippines and still owns several Chelsea Embankment Townhouses and St. Catherine Dock Flats, gives the following suggestions to British citizens or those married to Europeans who have $50,000 or 30,000 pounds to invest.
First, to spend it buying a studio condotel suite at the Lancaster Atrium Manila for what she calls an “initial property appreciation investment.” Collingz explains that the suite, which has a total floor area of 28.17 meters, will start earning rental income in 2010.
Second, to purchase a studio condotel suite at the Lancaster Suites Manila which, after its turnover this year, will start earning rental income almost immediately.
Last, to buy a studio condotel suite at the Lancaster Cebu Resort Residences, which, like the Lancaster Suites Manila, will rake in revenue starting this year.
“My phone has been very busy with buyers from the UK, Scotland, and Australia interested in purchasing investment opportunities and holiday homes here. A lot of this interest is being driven by the relatively cheap market prices in the Philippines compared to Europe and the easy payment options available for local condotel developments,” Collingz says.
“Those are not the only factors. Offshore property investors, foreign baby bombers as well as overseas Filipinos are looking for ways to maximize the return on their investments as they approach retirement,” she adds.
According to Collingz, the advantage of purchasing a condotel for a second home is that it can be used as a vacation home and then rented out with the help of the in-house condotel management when not in use.
With today’s purchase prices, these condotel units give a projected return on investments of 12 percent to 16 percent, depending on the mode of payment for the unit.
“International buyers know it’s a buyer’s market in the Philippines right now. There are a lot of properties available and fewer local buyers,” she says. “I’m working with clients who are purchasing their second properties with me. We also have referrals from many of our prior customers and new clients who have found us through our web sites.”
Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMPC) has launched its latest addition to its vehicle line-up, the Yaris hatchback passenger car.
The new Yaris, which was named "Car of the Year 2000" in Europe, has obtained a five-star rating and is acknowledged as the safest car in its segment by EuroNCAP.
The Yaris boasts of modern design, compact size, and fuel economy with its 1.5 automatic and manual transmission engines.
The Yaris is offered in two variants, 1.5-liter automatic and manual transmission at P748,000 (around $15,600) and P713,000 (around $14,900), respectively. It comes in four shades—mysterious black, passionate red, elegant white, and chic medium silver.
Do you marvel at the idea of exploring the world and experiencing its novel fares and splendid cuisines?
A cruise at Legazpi Village, a community enclosed by Amorsolo Street, Paseo de Roxas, Dela Rosa Street and Arnaiz Avenue, brings you closer to the world’s most exquisite treats with its unique dining locations. Teeming with eclectic culinary choices, the village complements the wide array of dining selections offered at nearby Greenbelt.
The Columns Legazpi Village, one of the newest developments of Community Innovations, an Ayala Land company, further brings the villagers closer to this novel dining experience as it provides the venue where people can just be a few steps from a wide array of culinary establishments.
Asian Food Fest
With just a walk in the village, you can learn there’s more to Asian food than your all-time favorite adobo or your good old siopao. Legazpi Village proves this as it showcases various elements of Asian cuisines like India’s sophisticated use of spices and herbs, Turkey’s simplistic yet surprising dishes, and Japan’s stylish dining.
Try Swagat Indian Cuisine on Rada Street and treat yourself to authentic Indian fare. The homey ambiance and the reasonably priced dishes make Swagat your best bet if it’s your first time to go Indian. Try the tandoori— chicken marinated in a mixture of ginger, garlic, yogurt and spices, and specially cooked in a tandoor or Indian brick oven.
There’s no need to go to Japan to discover that’s there’s more to Japanese cuisine than sushitempura. Look out for the red structure between Pasong Tamo and Amorsolo Street and have your journey at Little Tokyo. A zen garden welcomes you and ushers you into a cluster of restaurants that all give you a taste of Japan.
For that one-stop Asian culinary experience, visit the Legazpi Sunday Market and taste the delightful cuisines of Korea, Japan, Thailand and China.
Viva Italia!
Italian cuisine at its finest — that’s what you’ll find in Legazpi Village’s strip of Italian restaurants. Just a few steps away from your doorstep, you can experience the appealing dining ala Italia.
Located along Salcedo Street, Mezzaluna offers mouthwatering pizzas and pastas and desserts. Try their Vongole pasta, fresh clams with olive oil, white wine and parsley. For the dessert, try the Valrhona Dark Chocolate Marquise, a melt-in-your-mouth dessert with rich dark chocolate, surrounded with Vanilla sauce and Topped with Cotton Candy.
For a cozy, romantic Italian dining experience, try La Grotta, a cozy sanctuary for your pizza-and-pasta-seeking taste buds. Located along Rufino Street, treat yourself to their various pizzas and pastas.
For the die-hard pasta fanatic, there’s Amici, located along Arnaiz Street, beside Don Bosco. Choose from 25 different types of pasta sauces and around 6 types of pasta noodles. Check out their famous gelato and indulge in its enchanting blend of milk, eggs, sugar and other ingredients. More, gelato is even healthier than your ordinary ice cream.
Other restaurants also showcase the other exotic and distinctive elements of Mediterranean cuisines. Visit Azzurro Bistro and Wine Bar at Aguirre Street and feast in their wide array of food and wine choices.
Café Fete
Revisit 16th century Middle East — when and where coffee shops started to become places for social gathering and relaxation. On Dela Rosa Street, check out Old Manila Café Tea House, a café that offers treats at reasonable prices. Indulge in one of their best sellers – Scent of Mt. Apo — a blend of cappuccino with vanilla and hazelnut syrup.
Try Caffé a Go-go on Salcedo Street and treat yourself to the best sandwiches in town. Some of their must-tries are the tuna sandwich, chicken basil sandwich, or their garlic mushroom appetizer. You can also indulge yourself in their refreshing iced tea that comes bottomless at a very reasonable price.
Visit the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf outlet at the Convergys Building on Ayala Avenue corner Salcedo Street and experience their fresh quality ingredients, inviting interiors and excellent service.
With all these novelties and delights, plus the accessibility that The Columns Legazpi Village has to offer, residents can easily test themselves to the diverse tastes of the world. The Columns Legazpi Village is just a few steps from about 240 office buildings within the Makati Central Business District, and from a wide array of lifestyle conveniences. Together with its rewarding location, The Columns Legazpi Village entitles its residents with the Lovin’ Legazpi Privilege Card—their very own passport to the exclusive benefits of the many establishments of Legazpi Village.
For inquiries on owning a home at The Columns Legazpi Village, call 856-1888, email cii-sales@ayalaland.com.ph or visit www.thecolumnslegazpivillage.com.ph. Model units are available for viewing daily at the 3rd level of Glorietta 3, Ayala Center, from 10 am to 9 pm (Sunday to Thursday), 10 am to 10 pm (Friday and Saturday).
Despite suffering from major setbacks in their growth as materials of choice for the construction of houses, courtesy of more than 400 years of colonization by both Spain and the United States (which both espoused the use of seemingly sturdier stuff like stone, cement, and steel), the lowly bamboo and the oft-neglected coconut lumber are making a comeback—and a strong one at that—in the construction sector.
At the forefront of this comeback are the mostly unlikely of champions—a new-age architect and a government agency.
An Affair to Remember
Why the sudden interest in reviving an old construction technology? For architect Ning Encarnacion-Tan, it was the admiration she developed for the bamboo while researching about the grass’ properties that got her hooked.
This admiration led her to build, with the help of husband Juju and artisans Rudy Encinares and Bert Gallano, in 1992 her dream house on a small parcel of land in the ancestral compound of her in-laws.
The two-story house is composed mainly of three materials—bamboo, cement, and nipa. Of course, bamboo makes up more than half of the structure, providing fixtures for the first floor, such as the kitchen counter and window frames, and the backbone of the second floor, including the staircase and support beams.
Aside from being an engineering marvel, the house is also an environmental wonder, dispensing with the need for power-consuming devices like electric fans and air-conditioning, because of its design. Staying true to the architectural designs of old, the Tans’ former home (they sold it in 2003 to Juju’s brother, Jake, who turned it into a wellness and healing center) draws cool air through small portals located strategically throughout the first floor. This cool air then circulates, pushing warmer air up through the bamboo slats on the second floor and out the gap between the nipa roof and the bamboo frame and walls.
The success of the Tans’ bamboo house eventually caught the eye of ABS-CBN’s Bantay Bata Foundation. Ning was tasked to design the main structure of the foundation’s Children’s Village in Bulacan. And this she did using her original design for the house as a template and incorporating new ideas.
According to filipinoheritage.com, “Bamboo houses are built not by architects, but by the people who will live in them,” in an article describing the art of constructing a bamboo home. Ning Tan has broken this mold by not only designing the new-age bamboo house but also by living in one.
It's a Material World
Bamboo can also be used as the raw material for alternative construction materials. Take, for instance, the Department of Science and Technology’s cement-bonded boards, which can be installed in homes as walls, dividers, or ceilings.
With the country’s construction industry facing grim choices due to strict government regulations on the harvesting of wood, the department commissioned the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development and the Los Baños-based Forest Products Research and Development Institute to find suitable alternatives to wood.
Less than a year into the research, the PCIERD announced the development of a cement-bonded board that uses bamboo wastes as the main reinforcement raw material.
“Bamboo showed better qualities to reinforce concrete compared to other agricultural wastes like tobacco,” the PCIERD, an attached agency of the department, said in a report. The bamboo was also found to raise the load-carrying capacity of concrete beams.
The bamboo-based cement-bonded boards are now proving their worth in the construction of low-cost housing units. They have become the preferred alternative to plywood, whose supply has become drastically low in recent years.
The supply of plywood has consistently slumped since 1987, with only 517,000 cubic meters in total production output, according to government data. Unfortunately, the supply is not enough to meet the demands of the housing backlog, which stands at 4.2 million.
This backlog is further complicated by the sudden surge in housing demand from the migrant worker population, which has recently become the prime target market of real property developers.
The bamboo isn’t the only indigenous plant that the DOST is tapping for construction materials. The PCIERD is currently supporting the development of another breakthrough in the construction industry—the coco coir board, which can be used as wall and ceiling panels.
Terms of Endearment
Bamboo has about five major qualities that make it at par if not better than wood. First, it grows faster than any lumber-producing tree. It takes anywhere between 10 and 20 years for most trees to grow compared to the sturdy bamboo, the tallest-growing grass in the world, that grows at a fast and steady rate, making it reach maturity in about three to five years.
The bamboo is also one of the strongest and long-lived wood-bearing plants in the world, with more than 1,500 species thriving in the harshest environments. Harvesting the grass is also not a problem, as it does not kill it entirely, unlike culling trees that leave virtually useless stumps behind. It is also endowed with the tensile strength of steel, making it an ideal alternative not only for wood but also steel and cement.
As an alternative construction material, bamboo is making waves not only in the Philippines but also abroad.
In the Hawaiian island of Maui, for example, architects are now taking a second look at the versatile plant, seeking ways to cultivate its economic possibilities by promoting bamboo as a new crop and the construction material of choice.
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