Gilbert Ang, Mandani Bay project director, (right photo, left) together with other Mandani Bay officials, shares updates on their township project, the Mandani Bay (above photo), in Mandaue City with its second phase, the Mandani Bay Quay already in full swing.
Trend shows rising purchasing power of Cebuanos — Colliers exec
In the midst of the influx of investors and foreign tourists looking for residential spaces in Cebu, local buyers remain to be a good market for developers of prime properties in the province.
HT Land Inc., developer of the luxury project Mandani Bay in Mandaue City, has noted that majority of their buyers for Tower 2 of the project’s second phase are local buyers.
“Buyers are majority from Cebu. There are also regional buyers. You will be surprised. What we’re doing now is we’re doing regional efforts. We’ve been going around major cities in Davao and Visayas,” said Mandani Bay Project Director Gilbert Ang.
“And they like the concept of Mandani Bay. They also like to have units in Cebu since this is like the Metro Manila of the south. We haven’t really exerted international efforts yet,” he added.
Mandani Bay launched and started selling units of their Tower 2 last August 8.
And in just around one week, they have already sold 75 percent of their units.
Out of the 500 units of Tower 2, which are all residential units, 350 units have been sold already, HT Land Inc. reported. This accounts to between P1.5 billion to P1.7 billion in sales.
Ang said that if sales continue at this pace, they expect to sell off the entire Tower 2 in less than one year.
Joey Bondoc, Colliers International Philippines research manager, said this development would show the increasing purchasing power of Cebuanos and those from other regions.
“This indicates the rising purchasing power of Cebuanos and locals from other regions. They are drawn to the project because of its amenities and location as Mandani Bay is a coastal township,” said Bondoc in a phone interview.
“The strong demand also shows that locals are becoming more discerning with their investments and now prefer projects within integrated communities, which enhance their lifestyle,” he said.
Target buyers
While majority of the buyers of Tower 2 are Cebuanos and Filipinos from other regions, Ang noted that there are also some foreign buyers already.
Among the nationalities that have bought some units are Chinese, Japanese, and Americans.
Sales Head Audrey Villa said among the reasons why these foreign buyers have decided to purchase residential units in Cebu is for them to have vacation homes.
“We have a good mix of buyers. For the Japanese, they buy units so they can use it during winter in Japan. There are also Chinese and American citizens,” Villa said.
Another reason he pointed is that the residential units at Mandani Bay are much bigger than most other developments in Cebu.
Their smallest studio units are around 30 square meters for those with no balconies and 33 square meters for those with balconies.
The entire Tower 2 is 40 floors high and includes several other units aside from the standard units, including garden simplex units, and penthouses which range between 40 square meters to as much as 115 square meters for multiple-bedroom units.
Mixed use
Unlike the project’s first phase, the Mandani Bay Suites, which are all residential units, HT Land Inc. is doing a mix of residential, condo-hotel (condotel), and office spaces for their phase 2.
Dubbed as Mandani Bay Quay, the phase 2 has a total of four towers in a 2.61 hectare area.
Towers 1 and 2 are purely residential units. While Tower 4 will have office spaces.
For Tower 3, Ang said they are looking into doing a mix of residential units and condotel.
“We are considering the condotel because we believe as early as now, we want to already complete the Mandani Bay experience. So we will already have residential, office, and a hotel. And soon we will have the retail and interim boardwalk,” Ang said.
For now, he said they are still looking for a reputable international hotel brand to partner with for their condotel venture. They are eyeing around 250 condotel units for Tower 3.
At the same time, Ang said they are also working on an accreditation from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for their Tower 4 which will have 25 floors of office spaces.
Mandani Bay is a joint project of HongKong Land and Taft Properties.
The projects master plan includes the construction of a total of 21 towers on a 20-hectare property at the North Reclamation Area in Mandaue City.
The township components include residential condominiums, hotel or condotel, office towers, lifestyle spaces, and retail areas.
