Filinvest City rides Metro South growth
ALABANG in Muntinlupa City continues to maintain its standing as an attractive real estate investment, holding its own against other existing locations in Metro Manila such as Makati, Fort Bonifacio, Ortigas and the Manila Bay area. Of this, Filinvest City firmly establishes itself as the premier central business district (CBD) in the south, setting the pace amidst this robust real estate environment.
“The elements that comprise a wellplanned township or CBD are anchored on placemaking and a multi-faceted approach to planning, design and management of public spaces’,” said Joey Bondoc, manager for research at leading global real estate services company Colliers International. “Overall, placemaking should help transform places into destinations where people can synergistically converge.”
Filinvest City’s true live, work, play environment that brings together a residential haven, a business central, a leisure destination, learning and education zones, and a medical and wellness hub— all part of a comprehensive future-ready masterplan—are just some of the impressive qualities that give Filinvest City its competitive advantage among other comparable developments.
Coupled with Filinvest City’s impressive infrastructure are underground utilities and wide sidewalks, lush landscaped parks and bike lanes—and eco- centric enhancements that make the environs fresher, greener and healthier. Thus, Filinvest City can very well claim to be a real garden city.
As such, Filinvest City has attracted such top local and multinational companies as Insular Life, Shell, Convergys, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank. Recently, it welcomed the Ascott Group of Singapore as it inaugurated Somerset Alabang, its newest upscale service residence in the country.
“In the past number of years, Filinvest City has remained relatively quiet compared to other CBDs with regards to our projects,” said Catherine Ilagan, Filinvest Alabang Inc. executive vice president. “But in reality, we have been quite busy transforming Filinvest City to what it is today —dynamic, growing, and a true green city.”
More to the point, data from Colliers shows that office capital and land values in Alabang has enjoyed a steady and respectable growth rate of 9 percent and 15.4 percent, respectfully, over the past five years, driven by new vertical projects both in the residential and in the office space, among these Bristol at Parkway Place, Botanika Nature Residences, and the state- of the-art Parkway Corporate Center.
Furthermore, from the same data, office rental rates in Alabang presently stand at P650 to P700 per square meter, representing an impressive compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3 percent, as opposed to the CAGR of Makati that stands at 6.2 percent and Fort Bonifacio at 5.8 percent.
“Metro South has its own niche. Aside from being the preferred location of a number of BPO firms, Metro South is also a popular location for support industries in the Calabarzon region’s industrial hub,” Bondoc said.