NEW BREED, NEW MARKET
Seeking opportunities to invest, millennials and Gen Zers should bet on real estate.
This is what speakers claimed on Oct. 12 during “New Breed, New Market,” the latest leg of INQlusive: The Inquirer Webinar Series, presented by the Inquirer Property section in partnership with SM Development Corp. (SMDC).
Millennials refer to people born in 1981 to 1996 while Gen Z is the generation that follows.
“[Real estate] can be considered a sound investment. No. 1, it’s a crisis-proof, future-proof, pandemic-proof asset. No. 2, it can serve as your personal shelter. It can potentially give you passive rental or lease income,” said Andro Leo Beltran, AVP for Market Education of First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp.
Joey Roi Bondoc, Colliers Philippines associate director, also noted gains postpandemic. He said prices during the Asian and global financial crises dipped but also soared as soon as the economy picked up. Remittances from overseas Filipino workers, vaccinations and infrastructure projects all indicate signs of recovery.
In particular, he said, residential offerings have been a “stable ground.”
Thankfully, millennials and Gen Zers began investing in them prior to the pandemic and have not stopped since, said Pam Pastor, who has written extensively about young people as assistant editor of Inquirer Lifestyle.
“This may sound crazy to a lot of people,” she said. “Depending on who you listen to … millennial homebuyers have doubled, tripled or quadrupled during the pandemic.” SMDC can attest to the interest: Up to 54 percent of its buyers are below 39 years old.
Young people should be taken seriously, added Hiyasmin Neri-Soyao, founder of livestream shopping network Shoppertainment Live Inc. “They would look up the different products online and 80 percent of them would buy.” Furthermore, some 7 of 10 workers in the Philippines will be millennials and Gen Zers in 10 years.
Tapping into that market requires changing for its demands. Pastor and Soyao described both generations as big on products’ authenticity, social responsibility, value for money and respect for individuality, among others. All these have been embraced by SMDC, they said.
“I actually have a unit in SMDC,” said Soyao. “There is a supermarket already when I go down, there’s a drugstore. Everything’s accessible .... We have that certain space where we can practice wellness activities, even though we need to socially distance.”
Bondoc noted that threefourths of consumers “want to be in an integrated community where they can work from home and they have immediate access to basic goods and services.” New demands also include better amenities, work-from-home facilities and stable internet. SMDC has long adapted for all these as it has been espousing the integrated lifestyle development for some time now.
He likewise encouraged buyers to grab the “sweet deals” in real estate, like SMDC’s 10-percent discount on select ready-for-occupancy units for SM Super Month.
“Since money is a finite resource, make sure that you only buy from legit, reputable and trusted developers like SMDC,” Beltran advised.