Foreign Nationals snap up Philippine Apart-Hotel or Condotel Investments

Summary: Lower prices and retirees' spending money are directing foreign attention to residential condominiums or Apart-Hotels in the Philippines, which in turn is driving up more construction, according to a web based marketing firm.

Beth Collingz, director of PLC International Marketing Networks, said her company had been very busy catering to buyers from the United Kingdom and Australia who were interested in investment properties as well as holiday homes here. A lot of this interest is being driven by the relatively cheap market prices here compared to Europe especially UK housing prices and the easy payment options available for condominium hotel developments Collingz said. She added that offshore property investors, foreign baby boomers as well as overseas Filipinos were looking for ways to maximize their return on investments as they approach retirement. And so they are purchasing second homes, particularly condotels, where they use the condo for vacations and rent it out when they are not using the unit said Collingz, who runs the internet based PLC Global Pinoy marketing network. The buyers gain rental incomes that on today's purchase prices give a projected ROI of some 8 percent to 16 percent depending on the mode of payment for the unit she said. Collingz's firm is in partnership with Pacific Concord Properties, Inc., which has market ready projects in Metro Manila and Cebu under the brand Lancaster Suites, with more being built in other locations. Condotels are gaining a following because, in Pacific Concord's case, the owners can make the condos available for short-term rentals when they are away. At least 85 percent of PLC Global Pinoy's condotel sales in the Philippines were to international clients. While such a level of foreign purchasing activity is not as high in the Philippine provinces, Cebu in particular, has seen a sharp increase in real estate purchases by international buyers in the past several years she said. Foreign buyers were aware that it was a buyer's market in the Philippines right now with many properties available and fewer local buyers continued Collingz.