At home with change

Posted on May 20, 2010 by admin

There’s a change in the horizon for Residences Manila.

Back home in Manila, the latest Comelec and PPCRV official tallies without a doubt show that Benigno Simeon Cojuanco Aquino III, or Noynoy as he is fondly called, will soon be proclaimed as the country’s next President. The apparent success of the country’s first computerized elections, with a 75% turnout of 50 million voters, also raises hope that positive, political transformation can happen when there is political will.

The choice of Noynoy indicates to me that more Filipinos have asserted their desire for more sensible governance.  Reviews say that people expect him for now to simply perform his duties with honesty, and prioritize fighting corruption in government, just to implement even a few key programs.  It seems that for the meantime, fulfilling these  would win him baseline credibility with the Filipino people in the short term. I think that’s just the shot business sector needs to boost business confidence, and consumer spending.

On the field, homebuyers have become more conscious of the effect of Mother Earth on their neighborhoods.  After the debilitating effects of Typhoon Ondoy (international code name: Ketsana) in 2009, plus a slew of major quakes this year in other parts of the globe,  buyers have increasingly asserted the need for ‘flood-free’ or less earthquake-prone locations.  There aren’t that many due to violations in urban planning and zoning restrictions.  We hope that developers will consider more environmentally sound master plans, and stick to it.  Save the environment, save yourself–hopefully, that kind of thinking reads to them that their profits won’t decrease, and save them costly lawsuits in the end. This gives us an opportunity to review projects and neighborhoods from a green-ed perspective.

As we now experience drastically changing weather conditions in the Philippines and worldwide, homeowners will start re-thinking about how their houses can be made or remodelled to be more weatherproof,  more secure or earth-friendly.

For a more refined contribution to the blogosphere, Residences Manila will make another shift in content.

For those who will need a free home evaluation and home listings services, you may click on the listing feedlinks provided in the sidebards, visit  Architerra.org or email Architerra.

Audience-wise, we write with the mature home buyer and the first-time home seller’s needs in mind, though the information may benefit all types of property investors. Posts on home selection and evaluation, financing, to moving and home improvement for the move-in/move-out; why sell when you can rent, giving your house ‘curb’ appeal, taxation and selling your house on a cost-cutting budget–we hope to make this a true, one-stop online resource for you.

Expect practical views and homeowner’s accounts on methods which can help turn your residence in Manila into a green home, at least from an end-user viewpoint.  It’s a perception that it will cost you much to make an earth-friendly home, but we’ll try to lead you to where you can find sustainable materials or efficient designs.  We’ll include too more posts on how that trend will impact urban planning, the construction of landed properties and condominium towers. If we find ‘green’ materials which will make your home look better, feel better, or save the earth, we’ll blog about it!

On a special note: this blogger realizes too that there’s a need to provide more information on transacting in a cross-cultural setting.  As I’ve had clients  in mixed marriages or those who have been in a third-culture setting for some time, recurring questions on Philippine practices in property acquisition, disposal, documentation, legal issues, and understanding the Filipino cultural perspective in negotiations.  We’ll blog about that, in layman’s terms.  Hopefully, it will save all parties time, nerves, and keep the trust and goodwill til the end of the transaction.

I’ll be sharing from my 20 years of combined experience as Realtor, property investor, landlord, mortgage broker, online researcher, e-commerce & internet marketing practitioner.  On occasion, I will feature guest bloggers,  experts, and actual homebuyers and owners to share their experiences on the topics.

Residences Manila is at home with change in the name of better service to our Internet readers.  Let us know what you think about this!

Reinvent Your Residence,

Maita Siquijor

Founder and Principal Editor

ResidencesManila.com

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Choose Your Neighborhood First, Best Condo After

Posted on December 19, 2009 by admin

People out there are looking for Manila’s best residences.  “Best” alludes to ‘close to perfect’ or ‘most suited to one’s needs’. 

But I believe that “best” really means “best-in-class”, do you agree?  When you search for properties, you have an internal checklist, with one home or neighborhood that’s top ranked for that one, qualifying feature that matters most to you.  That would then help you  clinche the decision to settle for that property.

So let’s start with a few questions, first  about the neighborhood.  The primary consideration is still  ‘location, location, location’.  This leads us to evaluating areas of consideration, such as the list in  finding the Perfect Neighborhood, a previous article in Residences Manila:

Are there parks nearby?
Is it scenic and visually appealing?
Are there quiet areas, streets, culs de sac?
Are the people friendly in the neighborhood?
Is the neighborhood clean?  Yards, streets, parks?
Are there nice trees and foliage?
Do the lots have large or small yards?
Are there walkways and are they easily accessible?
Is it a safe neighborhood?
What are the market values of the homes in the area?
Are there many houses for sale? How’s the vacancy rate in the condominium?

How ’s the property management and maintenance?
How long ago was the community developed?
What is the average age of the people in the area?
Are there families with small children in the area?
What is the proximity to schools?
Are there community events or organizations?

What’s your consideration for choosing your neighborhood?  Let us know by leaving a comment or emailing Residences Manila.

Posted in Articles & Advice, Best-in-Class, Buying | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Elevators Can Make or Break Your Condo Choice

Posted on December 19, 2009 by admin

The condo elevator may be such a trivial thing to consider when selecting a condo to buy or rent.

But  in the past  viewings I’ve had in the Fort and in Makati, the kind of elevators a condo estate had became an important consideration! Here are my buyers’ and tenants’ concerns, a real eye opener for me:

Continue reading →

Posted in Articles & Advice, Buying, Home Search, Makati, Moving, Renting | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Residences Manila in Review

Posted on November 21, 2009 by admin

When I recall what AIM professor and problogger extraordinaire Anton Diaz asked me that invigorating September night in class:  ”What’s your passion?”, something stirred in me.  I felt the mounting excitement of my vision affirmed by those words.

He said it would be hard to deviate from what you’re passionate about when you blog, for that’s where your strengths lie. Recalling that moment I decided to do a review of Residences Manila, which I secretly conceived as an experiment for my Maven Secrets problogging class.

The spark of Residences Manila  was to blog about the lux and mid-market condo communities in Alabang, Fort Bonifacio Global City, and Makati. I wanted to capture online the snapshots and stories of what it meant to be a condo dweller living in a community.  I winced at listing blogs that described these projects, just like a product. Model units, though pretty and chic, still seemed lifeless and isolated  like mug shots of homes in a lineup. The model units were beginning to look alike.  I wanted to make the home search come alive, create some excitement, make it resonate in the reader’s mind’s eye.  I wanted to do it differently online–yet again.

Traipsing  almost daily among these three territories gave me a real feel of the ins and outs of the estates.  And I enjoyed doing this.  I love going thru Alabang, the Fort, and Makati City.  And it’s not about shopping, but the experience of the new and unknown.

As a broker who loves aesthetics and imagining what is possible in a unit of space, I could always visualize different looks of condos, in different styles–no matter how worn or how new the place looked.  And beyond that, how the pulse of the community made that relatively small space a more homey one for its resident.  That was the researcher within me observing colors, spaces, people, movement, pulsating patterns of life around the area. 

I must admit though that there are places in these territories that I resonate with more than others. My ‘goodness-of-fit’ radar is better in these 3 places. I’ll stick to that for now.

Somehow, I felt I deviated from the original spirit of this blog.  Some pressure to include listings on houses and first time home buyers  gave it less voice online.  

My stats counter  prove that my viewers do want to see these lux finds and unique apartment listings on Residences Manila.   But they also want to see the life behind and around the four walls of that pretty condo in photos. 

So I  return to Residences Manila’s  original spirit. Expect news  about the condo, the best-in-class estates, the good apartment finds around the Metro.  I will write about the urbanite apartment dweller’s usually great, sometimes challenging experiences of living in the condo.  There are surely many stories for this, as many as the units and floors for each condo estate!

Do expect to read on how to dress up your residential gem, tips on living, lifestyle and renewal for your home in the sky.  Lux means many things to many people.  But in Residences Manila, lux living means getting the most for your space, making it what you want to be, and living the life that you really want within those four fabulous walls.

Posted in Articles & Advice, Makati, Reviving Lux | Leave a comment

Best facilities on penthouse level at Fairways Tower

Posted on August 10, 2009 by admin

I’ve seen a lot of condominium facilities and amenities.   But I definitely love the luxurious and definitely very private residential ammenities available at Fairways Towers. It’s a nice gem to cap an otherwise conservative-looking, almost boring facade of the functional but well-located condominium. Having the facilities at the penthouse level gives it a luxurious mien by default.  The idea that no one else but invited guests and residents will get to use or see it unless they take the ride to the 30th+ floor makes it an ideal urban getway right after you come from a lightning-paced day at work, or coming home after living out of your suitcase for 4 weeks.

When you first step into Fairway Towers’ lobby, you’ll notice that it’s cool, bright, and quite compact. The ceiling is high, and you can immediately see the perimeter wall with the golf course peeping over it. You get an initial impression that there’s nothing remarkable about the building, except that fact that the lobby has a very quiet and empty vibe. I guess one can sense in the dynamic that there aren’t that many residents yet in the Fairways. But for someone like me, who has seen hundreds of condominiums in the line of broker’s duty, I was pleasantly surprised for the view of the facilities opening up into wide, inviting spaces while wind whips your hair. The comfy chairs and tables alongside the pool were filled with some teenagers, apparently international school kids on break, discussing anything and nothing under the pleasant sky.

The infinity pool is by no means olympic-sized, but it’s just right for residents who want to get away from the the cloister of their condo by springing into the pool, framed by the vast expanse of blue-and-white backdrop of clouds and sky. The gym on the penthouse level is well-equipped with treadmills, transport machines, and barbells good for a fair program of bodybuilding. The high-ceilinged ballroom and function rooms promise to hold capacity crowds of 150 or 200 people. You can just imagine in the evening that the top of the Fairways Towers glows from afar like a brilliant gem in the scepter. It definitely will hold its own beside the blue spaceship-like helipad of its neighbor, the Pacific Plaza Towers.

As I told my guest, it really feels like a ‘resort-in-the-sky’. The Fairways Towers units here are fairly priced, given its functional look, acceptable make and materials and location.  The units’ layouts are also wider despite the usual 36 or 52 sqm footprint for studio- and 1-br units respectively.  But getting units on the higher floors, one with a full view of the golf course, and topping it literally with the well-located facilities, you feel that you’re getting a more-than-fair deal at the Fairways. The condominium dues (it was 75 pesos/sqm. when I last asked) are also reasonable, compared to its more popular branded competitor.

As Fairways Towers sit at the left end of McKinley Road, just as you enter the Fort from Forbes Park area,  residents will not be bothered by the seemingly endless construction din going on in the rest of this burgeoning satellite city.  Just don’t expect Ayala-Land-style maintenance (which I think is the top-rated post-sale maintenance standard for the industry).  But considering the rest of the values, this is a condominium project to consider if you want consider ready-to-occupy units in the Fort, for a more modest budget.  What do you think?

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