The business of building homes

When Jeffrey Ng, president of Cathay Land Inc., decided to build a "city," he drew from what he had seen in his travels to Japan, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong. These were master-planned communities that not just gave their residents a shelter but served all their needs.

That’s how he sees the country’s real estate industry in the very near future – people will be demanding more for their money. Filipinos coming home after years of working abroad where they’ve been exposed to efficient, master-planned and designed communities will look for something more than simply a roof over their heads.

A cum laude graduate of the UP School of Economics, Jeff has always been fascinated by architecture and the idea of building. His father, John KC Ng, established the steel-manufacturing company Cathay Metal Corporation in 1967 from the hardware business he inherited.

A little less than 30 years later, in 1994, Jeff diversified the family business and went into real estate, acquiring parcels of land in the Cavite-Laguna-Calatagan areas. While it was an aggressive move at a time when the idea of the suburbs extending as far south as that wasn’t so obvious, Jeff today considers it his biggest business mistake: "I wasn’t aggressive enough in land banking in metro Sta. Rosa," he says, even though Cathay Land owns more than 400 hectares of land.

Today, the company is a major player in the industry with its various projects ranging from low to high-end communities. Apart from the ongoing 250-hectare South Forbes Golf City, which boasts eight themed communities (with designs ranging from modern Balinese to Japanese), Cathay Land has built a 25-storey tower in Manila; Astoria Plaza, a full-serviced apartment building, in Ortigas; and a 700-unit medium-cost housing in Dasmariñas, Cavite. It is just one of many company that Jeff heads, the others being Cathay Metal Corp., Amalgamated Iron works, Eurotiles, Ceramic Plaza, Federal Hardware and Builder’s Center.

The young taipan reveals that when he envisioned South Forbes Golf City, the company pegged its completion in 15 years, but with the way things are going, he says they may complete it in half the time: seven or eight years.

And of the biggest business lesson he learned form his father, Jeff says, "It was more by example. I saw how in good times and bad times – especially bad times – he expanded the business and soon enough things got better."

With this family business, the saying that the first generation builds it, the second expands it, and the third spends it away certainly doesn’t apply. From the humble beginnings of his grandfather’s hardware store, Jeff Ng has certainly taken the family business far.

He’s building it and they are going – all the way to south of Metro Manila.

Excerpts:

PHILIPPINE STAR: What’s the satisfaction you get from building houses?

JEFFREY NG: You feel happy when you get good feedback from your clients, when people tell you they want to live in something that you built. You can see it in less than a year’s time. Like the Bali Mansions of South Forbes Golf City, we started beginning of the year and now we already have four model units up.

What’s it like being both the boss and a member of the family?

I consider myself a professional manager, running the day-to-day affairs of the company. I have a dual role, so the burden is double.

When you first envisioned that you would build a "city," didn’t anybody tell you it wasn’t the right time to embark on such a big project?

At the time we felt that regardless of the situation in the real estate sector, there will always be a demand for projects that are well planned and fully integrated, where they can work there, play golf there, and their children can go to school there. Seldom do you have a property that can cater to all the daily requirements of its residents.

The designers I spoke with all speak highly of you as a manager and of your design sensibilities. Have you always been interested in architecture?

I’ve always had an interest in real estate and architecture, but in college I decided to take up economics at UP Diliman. Abroad I always look at how projects are planned. All this inspires me to do something unique and different in our own country. Of the buildings I’ve seen I like the ones in Tokyo’s Roponggi Hills, and in Hong Kong’s Deer Hill Gardens which also has a very good landscape concept.

Do you think architecture moves people?

Yes, definitely. Especially in our projects, we like to give people the "wow factor," something that will leave an indelible mark and make them want to live here.

Apart from the business, what other causes do you devote your time to?

I’m active in several associations. I’m the immediate past president of Rotary Club Manila Bay and we were "second best club" among all the clubs in Manila. We got several awards like a humanitarian award for giving dialysis machines to the PGH, which it needed urgently. Right now, I’m also active with the Young Presidents Organization of which I am the education chairman.

What do you talk about when you’re with your fellow CEOs and presidents? Is it all about business or golf scores?

Both (laughs). We talk about our families as well. YPO is a very good forum for such people; the Rotary, too, where my wife Vivian and I spent a lot of time working on projects for charitable institutions.

How would you describe your management style?

I try to look at the big picture, the strategic position where we want to be three or five years down the road, and then bring down the vision to our people, after which we set our targets and plan on how we can achieve it together.

Are you hands-on in everything?

I like to know what’s happening, but I also give my people leeway to make their recommendations.

Your people say you’re easy to work with, you’re decisive and there’s no red-tape in your office.

If anything, my problem is that I’m impatient. When dealing with architects and designers, I probably have to give them more time to gear up, but then I trust their instincts.

Is impatience a good or a bad trait for a businessman?

(Laughs) I think up to a certain point you have to be impatient – as long as you’re not too unreasonable. Businessmen like to think that they can implement their projects on schedule and meet the quality standards.

Do you see a difference in the way the young taipans do business today compared with the older generation?

The young generation doesn’t have to start from scratch the way our parents did; they are probably better educated, unlike our parents who got their education from the university of hard knocks. The older generation started from nothing, they built everything up. We tend to be not as impulsive as they were, we do a lot of research before making business decisions. I’d like to think that today we get the best of both worlds.

What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in running this company?

During good times you shouldn’t get carried away with too bullish predictions and during bad times you shouldn’t get too pessimistic. This applies not just in business but in life, too.

We hear of businesses that tear the family apart. Do you have rules to ensure it doesn’t happen to your family?

I’m the only one involved in running Cathay Land. And because I’m the eldest, my siblings (three brothers and one sister) respect my decisions regarding the way the business should be run.

So it pays to be the boss.

(Laughs) Yes, it does.

What kind of upbringing did you have?

A very middle class upbringing. Maybe we could have afforded something better but the way we were brought up was very simple. My dad would tell us stories of how difficult it was when he started the business. My parents were thrifty when we were growing up.

Do you practice the same thing with your own kids?

We try to, but unfortunately we haven’t been as successful (laughs).

Has your interest in real estate rubbed off on any of your kids?

The first two children (his third and youngest is just four years old) are interested in business development. My daughter just got a business award from her school, the British School.

How do you think Cathay Land has changed or influenced the real estate industry with this project?

I think we have set the bar a bit higher in terms of providing total value.

How did you come up with these international themes?

We wanted to let people feel that when they go home, it’s an international setting, totally different from what they’re getting in other subdivisions. Eight different themes with eight different themed clubhouses and landscapes. It’s something, isn’t it?

What we’d love to see is a subdivision where all the houses are modern.

That’s one of the themes we will be doing in a future project.

Ten to 20 years from now, how do you think Filipinos will be living?

More than ever you will have a lot of the middle and upper-income classes gravitating towards this kind of project. Hopefully, every community will be master-planned, everything will be within walking distance to one another.

What’s the biggest lesson you learned in business that you’d like to impart to your children?

To give their best in whatever they do, to work hard, and to give back to society in whatever way they can.

Do you think it’s harder for parents like you given that they are growing up in a privileged home? It’s a different childhood from what you had.

It’s getting to be more challenging as a parent because you’re competing with so many distractions in their lives – TV, Internet, their friends, etc. They can’t be as cloistered as before, at the same time there are also dangers of exposing them to too much. You have to walk a very fine line.