Chinese investment integral to Philippine property market, as friendly diplomatic relations, offshore gaming add to appeal

Chinese buyers are now integral to the Philippine property market, local developers say, with improved diplomatic relations and an offshore gaming industry encouraging mainland Chinese investors to put money in and immigrate to the southeast Asian country.

“The Philippine market has been strong with the Chinese community because ties between the Philippine government and the Chinese government, with our new president [coming in], are actually very good,” said Brian Plazo, Territory Head (Asia Pacific 2) of Philippine developer Megaworld Corporation. What better ties entail “is new business for the Philippines”, he added.

About 24 per cent of Megaworld’s sales last year were to Chinese buyers, according to Plazo, raking in 6 billion pesos (US$118 million) for the developer.

“Last year was one of our highest years, and a great contribution [was made by] our Chinese buyers,” he said, on the sidelines of a property conference organised by Uoolu, a cross-border real-estate transaction platform, in Beijing recently. Megaworld was starting to run out of inventory as a result, he added, and planned to launch more projects in the third quarter of 2020 to cater to Chinese demand.

According to Uoolu, the Philippines was the third most popular destination for property investment by Chinese buyers, following Thailand and Japan.

SM Development Corporation (SMDC), the residential arm of shopping centre operator SM Prime Holdings and the Philippines’ most valuable real-estate company, sold 40 per cent of its properties to Chinese investors last year for 118 billion pesos, according to Ismael Taib, manager of the company’s Chinese business relations section. And investment from Chinese buyers could reach up to 150 billion pesos this year, to account for about 50 per cent of total sales, said Taib, who said mainland investors were “very active” and “very helpful” in snapping up inventory from SMDC.