ALI remains upbeat on upscale market

MANILA, Philippines - Luxury housing continues to be a robust market for the Ayala Land Group with demand for its high-end properties, particularly in the Bonifacio Global City still strong in spite of a tough business environment.

Ayala Land Premier, a unit of ALI that caters to the upscale market, is ramping up its building program for Serendra, which is considered to be the pioneering residential development of its kind in the market today with nearly two-thirds of the total area dedicated to open spaces and landscaped greenery.

Melissa Gil, head of the Residential Buildings and Leisure at Ayala Land Premier, said Serendra is drawing a lot of interest from an increasing number of affluent baby boomers as well as empty nesters looking for maintenance-free living and luxury accommodations. 

“Reservations keep coming from families who want to live here (in Serendra). We have a lot of local cash buyers,” Gil said, pointing out that all its special three-bedroom units had been taken up.

Gil said One Serendra buyers are customers who are willing to pay a premium and paying for not only what’s within their walls, but what’s outside those walls, the entire community and the amenities that go with it.

Given a remarkable take-up rate, Gil expects to sell out all units in the 42-story East Tower in One Serendra in the first or second quarter of next year with the turnover of the units slated in the second quarter of 2012. The East Tower is the first of two high-rise structures that make up the final phase of One Serendra.

Of the total 283 units offered, 195 had already been sold with just one andtwo-bedroom units available. A two bed-room unit with an area of 107 square meters to 142 square meters, is priced at between P18.14 million to P25.4 milion (incusive of vale-added tax). One the other hand, a one-bedroom unit with an average of 70 square meters, costs P13.15 million.

The East Tower’s four special units (two skypool and two sky garden units with prices ranging from P48 million to P50 million) had already  been been sold out. A skypool unit with a size of 414 to 447 square meters, has a sprawling balcony with a plunge pool while a skygarden unit with sizes ranging from 372 to 388 square meters, comes with a landscaped garden.

Gil said demand for the high-end market started in the second quarter of the year and has shown no signs of abating. “I think what happened in the first quarter was people deferred buying as they adopted a wait-and-see stance,” she said.

She said the second tower within One Serendra — West Tower has yet to be launched. It will have 52 floors, offering a total of 370 units.