BALLOON releasing during the topping-off

SOC Land’s new condominium community continues to enjoy brisk sales since the warm welcome it received from the property market last year. About 40 percent of the sales were generated from local buyers, while the rest from buyers abroad, most of them Overseas Filipino Workers in Singapore, the Middle East, and Europe. This was revealed during the topping off of the first building in Anuva, in Muntinlupa City.  The project has four buildings.

The ceremony, led by South China Resources (SOC) Chairman Edgardo P. Reyes, also marked the second anniversary celebration of SOC Land, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SOC and developer of Anuva.  Guest of honor was Deputy Secretary General of United National Alliance Nancy Binay-Angeles, daughter of Vice-President and housing czar Jejomar Binay.  She commended SOC Land for helping government close the housing backlog gap by creating affordable solutions that improve the lives of Filipinos and the economy. It was her father who graced the groundbreaking of Anuva in July 2011.

The first tower was topped off after 15 months of construction. The first building will be ready for occupancy by December 2013, and the entire residential project will be completed in 2017.

The Puyat-Reyes group heads the conglomerate that has been supplying the country’s construction industry for a century through Puyat Steel, International Pipe Industries Corp., and Puyat Flooring.

Anuva offers buyers a different set up for a condo development.  The units are square-shaped, and in terms of layout alone, this allows for more living space.

“When you want to put a couch in a rectangular unit, where are you going to put it? We don’t want our residents and their guests to be greeted by kitchen odor when they enter the unit that’s why our kitchen is not beside the front door,” Reyes said.

The company is the first to offer a laundry area in all the units including the studios. This area is required in a working household but it is usually not designed as part of units for the middle-income range.

“We started that trend in this price sector and I’m happy to say it was followed by a lot of the better-known property developers,” noted JP Reyes.

Land development is being done by one of the industry’s preeminent names, NS Mangio. “We are the first ones to offer 80 percent open space,” he said. The community will have 2,000 units spread across eight buildings, a ratio which shows a low-density project.

The interaction between current market realities and buyer aspirations has revealed new information about buyers. Reyes cited Anuva’s studio units, which are usually saleable only to single individuals.  Today, newly-married couples buy studio units too.