TWENTY years ago, Antipolo and Laguna were considered remote, if promising, areas for short vacations or investments in out-of-town homes. Today, they are regarded as popular alternatives by homeowners who want to get out of the traffic congestion and the other kinds of stress associated with living in Metro Manila.
The Granary’s recreational area.
Haus Talk Inc. (HTI), a residential real estate developer established in 2004, has captured this emerging middle-income market with affordable housing that is still proximate to the National Capital Region and other places of work.
Robust sales have come from Laguna-based projects like the Biñan townhouse, The Granary, and San Pedro’s Southview Homes Calendola, which has single units; both properties offer two to three bedrooms. Meanwhile, in Antipolo, Celestis 1 and 2 in Barangay Bayugo, located on a 1.3-hectare terrain, have sold out their units.
Overall, the company has about 30 projects that are completed or being developed. Projects classified under affordable housing are usually composed of 240 units that are built on 1.5 hectares.
Affordability plays a major role for homeowners in securing one or more of these units. According to Francis Madlambayan, HTI’s head of corporate planning and investors relations, the average price of one of their Antipolo units ranges from P3.2 to P3.6 million. Laguna’s rates, at P2.5 million per unit, are a bit lower, geared for people who would take out a Pag-IBIG loan.
The living area in a unit in The Granary.
Madlambayan says that the Antipolo properties are considered more “premium” because the area is considered an extension of the NCR, development is booming, businesses are coming in, and urbanization is increasing.
Meanwhile, the companies and industrial parks that have set up shop in Laguna indicate a workforce that would gladly live in the municipality while taking quick public transport to Metro Manila or Calabarzon.
Madlambayan discloses that a large portion of their market is composed of first-time homeowners, new or starting families, and OFWs.
Community building
He also clarifies that while providing affordable housing, the family-owned company does not do “mass housing, which means that you build even though you don’t have buyers.” HTI’s strategy is to create its properties in phases, laying out the foundations such as the roads, gates, greeneries and amenities. Then, “we build up [when] our buyers have paid a significant amount of equity, roughly 70 to 80 percent.”
Thus, they guarantee the completion of the projects for the homeowners while being “able to mitigate the risk of empty homes.”
“No corners were cut,” says HTI chairman Terence Madlambayan, “and no considerations outweighed the goal of ensuring our buyers received the best value for their hard-earned money.”
At the same time, the firm continues to “explore new technologies and trends to allow a more efficient manner of constructing our projects for the benefit of our buyers,” says HTI President Maita Madlambayan.
A model house in Southview Homes Calendola in San Pedro, Laguna. PHOTOS FROM HAUS TALK INC
Francis Madlambayan emphasizes that they are more “community builders” than builders of mass housing. Communal places like parks, playgrounds, basketball courts and commercial areas are strategically designed to foster family closeness.
To date, the strategy seems to be working. As of the third quarter of 2024, HTI’s revenue has surged by 76 percent, climbing from P681 million to P1.198 billion; its net income rose by 110 percent, reaching P299 million compared to P142 million in the same period last year. These gains have already surpassed HTI’s 2023 annual revenue by 20 percent (P1 billion) and net income by 23 percent (P242 million).
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