Back to basics in real estate
“We’re at a period now where it is a buyer’s market,” says GeoEstate Development Corporation chairman and chief executive Francisco H. Licuanan III.
Eleven years since putting up his own property company and decades after leading the largest full-line real estate developer in the country, he knows this much to be true — that the industry is truly cyclical. “Today, the buyer has the luxury of choosing the product and choosing his time. We, therefore, have to go back to the most basic thing about business, which is to identify a true need. Not just a created need, but a true need.”
And for him, there has never been a better time for independent property developers such as GeoEstate to address this. In fact, he started the company after finding a niche that will make it more nimble in weathering challenges and navigating the market.
“We deliberately did not try to create a large company. We wanted to focus more on the product and the customer rather than in broad corporate things like going public or growing for the sake of growth,” he explains. “We created a lean team composed of very high-level people, so that we can bring our skills to bear. We can also decide very quickly because we are a small company.”
GeoEstate’s most recent condominium project Sonria in Alabang aimed for such an intimate, exclusive and low-density vertical community is composed of only 88 units. “The idea is that you know your neighbors and your children can play with their children,” says Licuanan. “We have a lot of repeat buyers and we have a lot of referrals. If a homeowner is unhappy, he would be selling and not referring. And that’s sort of a proof of concept to us, that we’re on the right track,” stated Licuanan.
He continually puts his extensive market experience and knowledge to good use in making value judgments on the market cycle. In 2007, GeoEstate’s first project was the threetower high-rise condominium The Beacon along Chino Roces Avenue in Makati City. In recent years, it has ventured into horizontal developments, such as the 5.5-hectare Soluna gated community in Bacoor, Cavite that offers upscale house and lot dwellings.
GeoEstate is launching another residential enclave in a nearby site in the burgeoning city of Bacoor. Spanning 17 hectares, it is slightly larger than its usual projects. As such, the development will be masterplanned to include a commercial center and a college.
“That’s what we provide the customer — the idea that when we sell you your house, top management has really looked at that house and looked at the design, and tried to figure out the best way to provide you what you want at a price you can afford,” adds Licuanan. “That’s been our story, and we try to keep doing that, and in the last 10 years we seem to have succeeded,” concluded Licuanan.