Wealthy Filipino empty nesters are moving to luxury condominiums

THERE will be new fashionable addresses in town, away from the old-money enclaves that are the exclusive villages in Makati, Pasig and San Juan.

- By Joseph L. Garcia Senior Reporter

Condominium developers are building residences that cost P12 million to the hundreds of millions of pesos, as they try to attract wealthy empty nesters.

Ayala Land Premier's Park Villas in Makati sit above P500 million; Federal Land, Inc., Japan’s Nomura Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd.’s Seasons Residences complex have units that start at P23 million.

"For every luxury village, there's always 5% to 6% (of homes) for sale," Dan Ian dela Pasion, head of sales at Torre Lorenzo Development Corp., said in an interview with BusinessWorld.

Even boutique developers like Torre Lorenzo, known for building condominiums close to universities, are joining the luxury game with the Gallery at Torre Lorenzo Loyola, with units selling from P25 million to P75 million, targeting wealthy residents of Loyola Grand Villas and La Vista, which are home to several old families and politicians.

Joey Roi H. Bondoc, research director at property consulting firm Colliers Philippines, said the sale of luxury homes and the subsequent exodus to condominiums of matching price and caliber is driven by empty nesters — wealthy older people whose offspring have gone on to start careers or families, leaving the main family home empty.

"Anecdotally, it's the empty nesters who are doing that," he told BusinessWorld by telephone. "The decision is that usually, they just sell it and then acquire a luxury condominium unit."

"They shift from horizontal to vertical [living]. Anecdotally, that's what we get," he added.

They move to a smaller condominium either to downsize because their kids are already grown-ups or they have faced a reversal of fortune and need to scale down, Mr. Dela Pasion said.

"They need funds," he said, adding that others have decided to partition their wealth and convert the big house to cash.