Sell
Attracting OFW dollars
Leading real-estate companies are coming up with even more attractive and affordable products to woo a cash-rich and growing market
By Maria Operario
Filipino overseas foreign workers remitted to the Philippines a total of $14.4 billion of their earnings in 2007, giving them and their families formidable purchasing power. Indeed, they accounted for as much as 30 percent of the total sales of local real estate companies last year.
This is why leading real-estate companies like Ayala Land Inc., Century Properties Group, Robinsons Land Corp. and Eton Philippine Properties Inc. are coming up with even more attractive and affordable real-estate products—housing lots, single detached homes, high-rise condominiums, and townhouses—to cater to this cash-rich and continuously growing market.
According to Rex Mendoza, chairman of Ayala Land International Sales Inc. (ALISI), Filipinos living or working in the United States—particularly in the West Coast—remain the largest chunk of this market in terms of demographic size and propensity to buy real estate. It is for this reason that ALISI parent Ayala Land Inc., the largest real estate company in the Philippines, is focusing its foreign marketing efforts in the US.
Says Mendoza: “The majority of ALISI’s customers still come from the United States, specifically in the West Coast where most of the economically empowered OFWs live. However, we have already started to expand our marketing efforts by going to other states in the US.”
He says that since the rules on selling Philippine properties in the US are not restrictive, ALISI’s sales force is more comfortable doing business in the US market than in other parts of the world. Another favorable factor for selling in the US is the absence of a language barrier, he says, English being commonly spoken in the target market.
Mendoza points out that Filipinos in the United States who buy pieces of property in the Philippines are usually immigrants or permanent US residents. Mostly over 40 years old, they buy property either in anticipation of their retirement or for investment purposes.
“The buyers from the US are very diverse,” he says. “They either come from the private sector or are government employees or teachers, medical professionals, entrepreneurs, and retired military personnel.”
Another company that looks to North America for a good part of its foreign sales is the Century Properties Group, one of the largest privately held real estate firms in the Philippines. Currently, however, its foreign marketing efforts now also cover 26 other countries, where as many as 10 million Filipino OFWs now either live or work.
Says Jose E.B. Antonio, chairman of Century Properties: “We started tapping the foreign market in the early 1990s, but the foreign market used to be only our second priority because local demand was stronger at the time. At the turn of the decade, however, a very substantial new market for housing emerged. This was when more and more Filipinos went abroad to earn a living, thus increasing their spending power.”
Currently, Century Properties gets 40 percent of its sales from Filipinos working overseas and is aggressively marketing its real-estate products to them. It taps prospective Filipino buyers by conducting real-estate road shows in the target foreign countries and by appointing mostly Filipino real-estate agents abroad.
He explains the company’s marketing strategy: “It is our goal to help Filipinos achieve their dream of having their very own home. We recognize that Filipinos abroad are still finding value in Philippine-based homes either as an investment or as a retirement or vacation place.”
Antonio says that in the US in particular, most Filipinos have good credit standing and are generally prudent buyers, so Century Properties does not find the current US subprime credit crisis a major cause for worry.
In the middle of 2005, when Ayala Land Inc. put up its international sales and marketing arm, the company trained its sights on other overseas markets such as Europe and the Middle East as well as the fast-growing markets of Canada and Australia.
“These new areas have rich market niches of overseas Filipino workers,” says Dave Rafael, ALISI general manager. “They can cushion the impact of a possible slowdown of our key markets in California due to the subprime problem.”
To market its real-estate products to these new markets, ALI relies heavily on technology. It communicates and transacts with overseas buyers using the Internet, toll-free phone facilities, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). It then offers a wide range of payment schemes to make its products more affordable to them.
Rafael explains: “We extensively do both formal and informal market research to help us understand the dynamics of this market better. We make every effort to assess what the buyers in this market want and what’s important to them. And we are extensively using overseas tri-media advertising because we have found it effective in promoting awareness abroad about our real-estate products.”
ALI is also doing below-the-line activities such as open houses, event sponsorships and tie-ups with Filipino-American groups, and intends to do more of these activities as new markets open up.
“We have barely scratched the surface of the real-estate markets in other parts of the world,” Mendoza says. “For instance, it was only recently that we began to invest heavily in Europe and the Middle East. We foresee that the contribution of these two major new markets to our total international sales will increase substantially in the coming years.”
Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is also benefiting from the influx of remittances from overseas Filipino workers.
According to RLC president Frederick Go, OFWs have become a bigger source of revenues today compared to two years ago. OFW sales currently account for about 5 percent of total company revenues.
“They earn good wages and continually look for good investment ideas. Real estate is simple and easy for them to understand. Moreover, it is every Filipino’s dream to own their own residence,” Go said.
RLC taps these moneyed buyers by having a dedicated international marketing team that goes to countries with big concentrations of OFWs, such as the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It also invests in print advertising, direct marketing and the Internet.
With more Filipinos leaving for greener pastures abroad, RLC believes that more sales will come from them.
Comparatively a newcomer in the property scene, Eton Philippine Properties Inc., the property arm of the Lucio Tan Group of Companies, is doing a highly focused marketing effort that targets expatriate Filipinos in Asia and in the Middle East.
The company is encouraging purchases by giving OFWs a variety of payment plans to choose from—from low down-payment schemes to low monthly payments through bank financing.
CONTACT DETAILS
AYALA LAND INC.
Tower One, Ayala Triangle,
Ayala Ave. Makati City
Telephone: (02) 848-5643
Website: www.ayala.com
CENTURY PROPERTIES GROUP
21/F Pacific Star Bldg.
Sen Gil Puyat Ave.
cor. Makati Ave. Makati City
Telephone: (02) 811-5565
Website: www.century-properties.com
ROBINSONS LAND CORP.
Housing and Land
Development Division
Level 1, Robinsons Galleria, EDSA
cor Ortigas Ave., Quezon City
Telephones: (02) 683-6100; (02) 683-6318; (02) 683-6100 local 618
Website: www.robinsonshomes.com.ph
E-mail: rhi@robinsonsland.com
This is why leading real-estate companies like Ayala Land Inc., Century Properties Group, Robinsons Land Corp. and Eton Philippine Properties Inc. are coming up with even more attractive and affordable real-estate products—housing lots, single detached homes, high-rise condominiums, and townhouses—to cater to this cash-rich and continuously growing market.
According to Rex Mendoza, chairman of Ayala Land International Sales Inc. (ALISI), Filipinos living or working in the United States—particularly in the West Coast—remain the largest chunk of this market in terms of demographic size and propensity to buy real estate. It is for this reason that ALISI parent Ayala Land Inc., the largest real estate company in the Philippines, is focusing its foreign marketing efforts in the US.
Says Mendoza: “The majority of ALISI’s customers still come from the United States, specifically in the West Coast where most of the economically empowered OFWs live. However, we have already started to expand our marketing efforts by going to other states in the US.”
He says that since the rules on selling Philippine properties in the US are not restrictive, ALISI’s sales force is more comfortable doing business in the US market than in other parts of the world. Another favorable factor for selling in the US is the absence of a language barrier, he says, English being commonly spoken in the target market.
Mendoza points out that Filipinos in the United States who buy pieces of property in the Philippines are usually immigrants or permanent US residents. Mostly over 40 years old, they buy property either in anticipation of their retirement or for investment purposes.
“The buyers from the US are very diverse,” he says. “They either come from the private sector or are government employees or teachers, medical professionals, entrepreneurs, and retired military personnel.”
Another company that looks to North America for a good part of its foreign sales is the Century Properties Group, one of the largest privately held real estate firms in the Philippines. Currently, however, its foreign marketing efforts now also cover 26 other countries, where as many as 10 million Filipino OFWs now either live or work.
Says Jose E.B. Antonio, chairman of Century Properties: “We started tapping the foreign market in the early 1990s, but the foreign market used to be only our second priority because local demand was stronger at the time. At the turn of the decade, however, a very substantial new market for housing emerged. This was when more and more Filipinos went abroad to earn a living, thus increasing their spending power.”
Currently, Century Properties gets 40 percent of its sales from Filipinos working overseas and is aggressively marketing its real-estate products to them. It taps prospective Filipino buyers by conducting real-estate road shows in the target foreign countries and by appointing mostly Filipino real-estate agents abroad.
He explains the company’s marketing strategy: “It is our goal to help Filipinos achieve their dream of having their very own home. We recognize that Filipinos abroad are still finding value in Philippine-based homes either as an investment or as a retirement or vacation place.”
Antonio says that in the US in particular, most Filipinos have good credit standing and are generally prudent buyers, so Century Properties does not find the current US subprime credit crisis a major cause for worry.
In the middle of 2005, when Ayala Land Inc. put up its international sales and marketing arm, the company trained its sights on other overseas markets such as Europe and the Middle East as well as the fast-growing markets of Canada and Australia.
“These new areas have rich market niches of overseas Filipino workers,” says Dave Rafael, ALISI general manager. “They can cushion the impact of a possible slowdown of our key markets in California due to the subprime problem.”
To market its real-estate products to these new markets, ALI relies heavily on technology. It communicates and transacts with overseas buyers using the Internet, toll-free phone facilities, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). It then offers a wide range of payment schemes to make its products more affordable to them.
Rafael explains: “We extensively do both formal and informal market research to help us understand the dynamics of this market better. We make every effort to assess what the buyers in this market want and what’s important to them. And we are extensively using overseas tri-media advertising because we have found it effective in promoting awareness abroad about our real-estate products.”
ALI is also doing below-the-line activities such as open houses, event sponsorships and tie-ups with Filipino-American groups, and intends to do more of these activities as new markets open up.
“We have barely scratched the surface of the real-estate markets in other parts of the world,” Mendoza says. “For instance, it was only recently that we began to invest heavily in Europe and the Middle East. We foresee that the contribution of these two major new markets to our total international sales will increase substantially in the coming years.”
Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is also benefiting from the influx of remittances from overseas Filipino workers.
According to RLC president Frederick Go, OFWs have become a bigger source of revenues today compared to two years ago. OFW sales currently account for about 5 percent of total company revenues.
“They earn good wages and continually look for good investment ideas. Real estate is simple and easy for them to understand. Moreover, it is every Filipino’s dream to own their own residence,” Go said.
RLC taps these moneyed buyers by having a dedicated international marketing team that goes to countries with big concentrations of OFWs, such as the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It also invests in print advertising, direct marketing and the Internet.
With more Filipinos leaving for greener pastures abroad, RLC believes that more sales will come from them.
Comparatively a newcomer in the property scene, Eton Philippine Properties Inc., the property arm of the Lucio Tan Group of Companies, is doing a highly focused marketing effort that targets expatriate Filipinos in Asia and in the Middle East.
The company is encouraging purchases by giving OFWs a variety of payment plans to choose from—from low down-payment schemes to low monthly payments through bank financing.
CONTACT DETAILS
AYALA LAND INC.
Tower One, Ayala Triangle,
Ayala Ave. Makati City
Telephone: (02) 848-5643
Website: www.ayala.com
CENTURY PROPERTIES GROUP
21/F Pacific Star Bldg.
Sen Gil Puyat Ave.
cor. Makati Ave. Makati City
Telephone: (02) 811-5565
Website: www.century-properties.com
ROBINSONS LAND CORP.
Housing and Land
Development Division
Level 1, Robinsons Galleria, EDSA
cor Ortigas Ave., Quezon City
Telephones: (02) 683-6100; (02) 683-6318; (02) 683-6100 local 618
Website: www.robinsonshomes.com.ph
E-mail: rhi@robinsonsland.com
