Better opportunities this year – exec

The real estate industry will continue to get better this year.

“2012 is a one year to reckon with. The government is positioned to spend on infrastructure projects, which would also bring about an increase in the real estate business,” said Boler Binamira Jr., assistant vice president and area sales head of Filinvest Land Inc. during Friday’s Cebu Real Estate Economic Forum in Cebu City.

Binamira was referring to the infrastructure projects lined up by the government in its public-private partnership (PPP) program. The government is expected to bid out at least P1.15 billion of infrastructure and power projects this year.

Fernando Fajardo, economics professor of the University of San Carlos, agreed.

“There is a lot of money in the real estate business. Money is flowing into the sector,” said Fajardo, who was one of the speakers of the forum.

He, however, cited a slight decrease in the real estate industry under President Aquino’s administration.

He said the Aquino administration wasn’t using money that much, and so the economy slowed down.

Meanwhile, taipan Andrew Gotianun’s Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), is looking to establish itself as one of the most respected names in the country’s retail sector as it sets out on the multi-billion revamp of its current projects.

The company cedes that in terms of size, trying to compete with other taipan Henry Sy’s mall empire would be a mistake.

What Filinvest lacks in scale, it plans to make up for in the quality of customer experience that it can deliver to its customers, says Danny Antonio, managing director at FDC subsidiary Filinvest Alabang Inc.

“What has happened in our country is that malls have replaced parks as the place families go to on weekends to relax,” he tells SundayBiz.

Because of this, he adds Filinvest’s goal was to make its retail establishments—namely the Festival Supermall in Alabang, Muntinlupa, and another planned commercial complex at the South Road Properties area in Cebu—into premiere weekend hotspots for Filipinos.

The company has allotted P3.5 billion for the development of each location, bringing the total to P7 billion over the next three years./ Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol with Inquirer report