This is part of the South Road Properties, which is a 300-hectare reclamation project of the Cebu City government.
CDN FILE PHOTO
Three-hectare lot will have a P110K per square meter floor price
Another move to sell lots in the South Road Properties (SRP) is being initiated at the Cebu City Hall.
This time, Councilor Nendell Hanz Abella is sponsoring a proposed ordinance seeking the sale of a three-hectare lot of the SRP at P110,000 per square meter, which is thrice the floor prices of the previous SRP lot sale of P35,128 per square meter to Filinvest Land Inc. and P38,000 per square meter to a consortium made up of SM Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc.
Filinvest bought 19.2 hectares while the consortium purchased 26 hectares of the reclamation property.
In the proposed ordinance, Abella sought approval from the City Council to authorize the mayor to sell another three hectares of the SRP in the new floor price, which could be the most expensive floor price for the reclamation property.
The proposal seeks to supplement City Ordinance No. 2332, passed in 2012, which prohibits the sale of SRP lots without approval from the Cebu City Council.
“The mayor (Tomas Osmeña) is asking from the council for an authority to sell a certain area in the SRP for not less than P110,000 per square meter. I have supported the sale before. I will support it now as long as it is advantageous to the city,” Abella told Cebu Daily News on why he decided to sponsor the ordinance.
“If it is not less than P110,000 per square meter, then it should be advantageous and beneficial,” said Abella, who was a former Team Rama member but now an independent councilor in the council.
The lot sale will earn an expected revenue of P3.3 billion.
Measure’s details
Under Abella’s proposed ordinance, the mayor is given authority to sell, dispose of, transfer or convey approximately three hectares of lot in the SRP through either public bidding, negotiated sale or other modes of sale.
It also specifically limits the sale to Lot 1-F-8-A with an area of 25,769 square meters and Lot 1-H-1 with an area of 3,349 square meters. These two lots are located in the SRP’s Pond F area which is near property of Filinvest and the area going to the office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7.
During the City Council’s regular session last week, the proposed ordinance was referred to the committee on laws for review.
The proposal also cited the qualified bidders to be Filipino citizens; partnerships or corporations duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC ) with at least 60 percent of their capital owned by Filipino citizens; or their duly authorized representatives.
The proposed ordinance also indicated that the payment would be done in two installments where 50 percent would be paid upon signing of the sale documents and the other half will have to be paid upon approval of the Commission on Audit (COA).
Possession of the property will only be turned over to the buyer upon full payment. The buyer will also have to shoulder all applicable taxes on the sale.
“Said sale will indeed concretize real estate values of land at the SRP, as an erstwhile starting point for investments in the SRP, while at the same time pushing up the values of the existing public-private partnerships of the City of Cebu with its partners at the SRP,” the proposed ordinance read.
‘Too expensive’
Alvin Garcia
Team Rama councilors, who make up the majority of the council, expressed pessimism over the proposal.
City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia said the floor price is too expensive.
“I think it is a bluff. Who will buy at P110,000 per square meter? He cannot even name a buyer?” he told CDN when sought for comment on the plan.
He also said that it is not the right time to sell another property at the SRP since they had just sold 45.2 hectares only two years ago.
“It (2015 sale) generated P18 billion for the city. We do not need the (additional) cash as of now,” he said.
Garcia, who is the chairperson of the committee on laws that will review the proposal, also said that he is confused why the mayor wants to sell another lot in the SRP when he said he plans to rescind the 2015 sale of SRP lots to the SM-Ayala consortium and Filinvest.
Diverting real issue
Councilor Joel Garganera, who shared the same sentiments with Garcia, said he plans to oppose the proposal.
He said the mayor is only “diverting the real issue” in the SRP.
“He is constantly bullying our investors like throwing garbage at the SRP, non-issuance of business and building permits at SRP. Is he aware that investors are now avoiding Cebu City? Cebu City is not about Tommy Osmeña or his ego, it is about the Cebuanos,” Garganera told CDN.