Develop ‘livable’ communities, property firms told
“LIVABLE COMMUNITY” isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you see the congested spaces in Metro Manila. With land becoming scarcer and real estate prices rising every year, developers would have to set up in other areas if they want to continue building livable spaces for their customers.
For RGV Group of Companies Vice-Chairman Jaime A. Cura, it is the government’s promise to improve infrastructure across the country that’s helping real estate industry players think outside Metro Manila.
Mr. Cura, who headed the board of judges for this year’s PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards, said property developers are now more decisive to expand in the provinces following the government’s infrastructure program.
“A certain observation is that the aggressive goal of the government to ‘ build, build, build,’ in order to make up for the lack and backwardness of the basic infrastructure of our country, has been a vigorous push to the property industry. Developers have become bolder and more decisive about entering out of the highly congested and polluted cities,” Mr. Cura said in a speech during the awards night at Fairmont Makati last week.
He noted that the term livable community — often used as a marketing slogan by industry players — would be nothing but “empty and deceptive promises” unless they find a way to actually build more space for their customers.
“(The infrastructure program will) give developers a fresh start, and the opportunity to show the lessons gained from operating within a less than ideal planning development or the total lack of it,” Mr. Cura said.
Another observation from one of the awarding body’s judges is the effort of companies to develop green and sustainable buildings.
“At least now a lot of the developers are being more conscious about putting in more green into the development so we have not just rainwater collection, not just making sure that they are LEED certified but most of them are actually, that recognition among developers is now top of mind,” Pronove Tai International Chief Executive Office Monique Cornelio-Pronove said in an interview.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a certification given by the United States Green Building Council that proves a building has focused on five key elements, namely energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, materials selection, sustainable site development, and water savings.
Ms. Cornelio- Pronove said this puts Philippine developers in step with Asian competitors, since green development is something that the Asian market has been seeing in previous years.