Filipino Homes offers home construction management, other value added services

Anthony Gerard Leuterio, president and founder of Filipino Homes, explained their decision to create their construction management subsidiaries to serve the growing demand for value-added services. /Irene R. Sino Cruz

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Starting out as a marketing group, Filipino Homes is now venturing into home construction management and other value-added businesses.

“When we started as a marketing group, we saw some value-added businesses that will support our buyers,” Anthony Gerard Leuterio, president and founder of Filipino Homes. He noted that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who accounts for a major share in real property purchases, have been fuelling the country’s economy.

“We don’t want to miss the opportunity that they will not be catered properly,” Leuterio said in a press conference this morning, July 30.

He disclosed that many OFWs have been duped and scammed over the construction of their houses. “Ninety percent of OFWs send money (but) the house is not finished.”

According to Leuterio, the houses were either not properly constructed or left incomplete by the contractors. “We saw a need for building of houses that are custom-made or built to their requirements. We saw that potential,” he added. “We are not a competitor of developers. I’m still a partner of developers.”

Because of this, Filipino Homes decided to establish two subsidiaries, the Filipino Homes Plus and the Philbuilders, to meet this growing market demand.

Filipino Homes Plus specializes in custom-made houses. “We have these clients looking for specific (requirements) in houses which the developers could not address. For example, they want a big house with a big room on the ground floor for their elders. We seldom see that on the existing houses of developers,” said Azela Honor of Filipino Homes Plus.

Leuterio said they have thousands of property listings all over the Philippines from which prospective buyers could choose from. At the same time, he said they have been negotiating with Sta. Lucia Properties, one of the largest land-only subdivision developers, so they could partner with the company.

“We are not a construction company. We are affiliating with construction companies through Philbuilders, our construction arm,” he said.

Philbuilders have two teams, one based in Mindanao and one in Cebu, to collaborate with contractors for their upcoming projects. It will be accrediting contractors who will be graded and rated based on their past projects who will undertake the projects. So far, they have completed 15 house projects, eight of which are in Cebu City.

The Filipino Homes Group has also established three other subsidiaries, the Condo Fit, Condo Fix and FH Cleanmate.

Condo Fit takes care of outfitting bare condo units while Condo Fix will cater to repair or renovation of condo units. On the other hand, FH Cleanmate offers cleaning services not only to condo units, but also to offices and residences.

Lilibeth Caminade of FH Cleanmate explained that their services also include cleaning of the air inside the homes or office through their high-tech cleaning equipment. She added that they have been partnering with Airbnb to service condo units listed in Cebu./dcb