Make SRP attractive

In a number of seminars I had the privilege of gracing as a resource person, I would rephrase the English idiom “strike while the iron is hot” which was believed to have been coined sometime in 1500. The idiom referred to a blacksmith who, in working on an iron, would heat then strike it in its malleable state to achieve a desired form. The heating was necessary because it would be difficult, if not impossible, to make, say sword, from a cold and rigid iron. During my seminars, I would rather say “strike until the iron gets hot”.

 Before the COVID-19 pandemic destroyed the world economy, the Philippines was the leading economic performer in South East Asia. Our economy was hot, in an analogical way of speaking. Had the Corona virus not hit us, we would just be hitting our hot economy to any desired ends.

Philippine economy is bad. It is dreadfully cold. On its part, Cebu City has to hit our cold economic iron and pound it on its proverbial anvil until it gets hot. One viable aspect on its attempt to rev economic activities is to prepare its vast reclamation project known as the South Road Properties for future locators. What we know is that in its present status, there are but few registered land titles with each document covering large areas. The size cuts are so big that only large corporations can afford to buy. These huge companies are more restrained in investing in large acreage of real estate. Certainly, it is not prudent for them to plough heavy portfolio to acquire large parcels land, no matter how promising these lots are. On their part, smaller companies are stymied by the huge cost of big lots.

The brilliant minds among city leaders, I am sure, know better than what I have just said above. They too, must have seen that the large sizes of the cuts of the South Road Properties reclaimed parcels of land were aimed for huge conglomerates. This is evidenced by such known early locators as SM and Filinvest.

The original SRP roads have been accordingly designed. Between the cities of Cebu and Talisay, about two hundred hectares were reclaimed yet only the South Coastal Road links these cities because there were few expected prospectors.

There is need to develop the SRP. The first step of such development is to break the sizes of the reclaimed lots from several hectares per title into smaller cuts. We know that a hectare is ten thousand square meters. Even at the unthinkable bargain price of thirty thousand pesos per square, one hectare is worth three hundred million pesos. In these uncertain times, not even a multi billion enterprise is ready to spend that much for land acquisition alone.

What small corporation can afford to sink that kind of money for one hectare? And why one hectare, in the first place? But, surely a cut of one thousand square meters is only thirty million pesos, on the supposition of that bargain price of P30,000 per square meter. I believe that there will be more investors buying SRP lots when the sizes are smaller. With more firms doing business, the engines of economy can begin to rev.

Consequent to the breakup of huge land areas is the need to build more roads. Businessmen always buy real estate located beside the road. So, to entice moneyed groups to buy at SRP, the development must include the construction of additional city streets. Voila! New roads can divide the number of vehicles occupying the streets and help, in the process, make the flow of vehicular traffic faster.

The foregoing two reasons predicating the need to develop the SRP can probably be considered as an analogy to striking the iron of economy until it gets hot. My goodness, how imaginations can be wild!