Affordable luxury

Affordable luxury

By Dennis D. Estopace
Reporter
Business Mirror
January 28, 2006

MORE overseas Filipino workers are buying units at the Dolmar Property Ventures Inc.'s medium-rise project in Pasig City since these units offer a combination of semiluxury settings in a highly urbanized environment, an executive of the company told BusinessMirror.

Erwin Pineda, senior manager of Dolmar's business development and marketing division, said that based on the company's experience, OFW families traditionally look for houses often featured in glossy magazines-those with big green front lawns and afford wide distances from their nearest neighbors.

"However, those who have experienced working abroad, especially nurses, are more attuned to condominium living, or one that is near their place of work but offer the security of a gated community," Pineda said.

Hence, there has been an increase in take up of row houses in subdivisions, especially after the real-estate sector slowly recovered from the Asian financial crisis, Pineda said.

Medium-rise condominiums, according to Pineda, are those below nine floors, while high-rises can reach up to 40 floors divided into a maximum of 30 units. Dolmar's Golden Heights Residences project near Fort Bonifacio , Taguig City , has five floors containing 20 units. With three meters of hallway, it's almost like living on a row house, he added.

Dolmar's one-hectare Golden Heights Residence in Pasig City is two kilometers away from the Fort Bonifacio commercial and business district. The company plans to build an L-shaped medium-rise condominium with a 600-square meter oval park after the wide gate entrance.

Pineda said that the first floor would be reserved for commercial spaces and the second floor for parking. Studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and bilevel two-bedroom and three-bedroom units are also being sold by the company.

OFWs, now numbering more than four million in 190 countries worldwide, have been targeted first by the real estate and property development sector and then the retail sector, as the money they send back to the Philippines has spurred consumption.

According to a study on remittances by the Asian Development Bank, each Filipino living and working temporarily or permanently overseas remits an estimated US$340 a month. Ninety percent of a sample population surveyed by the ADB in several host countries said they save money in order to remit money back home. Aside from food, utilities and personal care, their families use remittances on "dwelling-related" expenses.

"What we've noticed is women, either the OFW or the spouse left behind, decide on which housing type-high-rise or medium-rise-they would buy," Pineda said.

Dolmar is selling two-bedroom, two-level units at the same price as a 36-square meter high-rise condo unit. Pineda said these Dolmar units are up to 70-square meters each.

"Women entertainers from Japan would be swift in their decision to relocate their families in a medium-rise condo unit," Pineda said, citing their experience. He, however, declined how many OFWs or women entertainers from Japan have bought units in their Golden Heights project that is still under construction and targeted to be finished in March this year.

Among OFWs who work in Saudi Arabia , for example, they ask their wives and secure approval for the house purchase, Pineda said.

Half of the inquiries they get, he said, are via the company's web site and come from OFWs still working abroad. Most of these inquiries, he said, come from professionals, seafarers and Filipinos working in the medical industry of another country.

Thirty percent of the inquiries are for Dolmar's horizontal properties, especially those in Bulacan.

Pineda said the company prefers OFWs to sign a special power of attorney to delegate transactions to their Philippine-based family members. The SPA appoints the spouse or any relative to act as attorney-in-fact and reserve, pay or sign on the OFW's behalf.

Even as the best option is for OFWs to personally process and sign the papers, the SPA nevertheless helps avoid legal questions in the future, Pineda said.

According to the company's web site, Dolmar was established in 1971 as a privately held corporation engaged in leasing office spaces.

"During the 1970s to 1980s, the company constructed a number of its own buildings in the cities of Makati , Manila and Mandaluyong for office or commercial leasing," it said.

Golden Heights is Dolmar's first venture in midcost, midrise condominiums. The first 86 units of this urban-based project will be ready for occupancy by 2006 after construction began in 2004.

Dolmar Real Estate Development Corp., the Property Ventures's parent company, is one of top 100 stockholders of Tanduay Holdings Inc. (number 70 with 10,133 shares) and First Philippine Holdings Corp. (number 45 with 158,839 shares) as of December 31.