Thursday, August 30, 2007 Firm gets loan for condo
A Singapore-based property developer is confident it will be able to complete its high-end condominium project in Cebu next year.
This, after government-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) granted the firm a loan amounting to P300 million.
“This signifies that the Philippine government helps in promoting foreign investments in the country by actively participating in the project,” said Syntech Properties Inc. (Syntech) chairman Eugene Yong Kon Yoon.
Syntech Properties Inc. and Cebu-grown contractor Primary Structures Corp. are the proponents of Citylights Gardens Condominium located in Nivel Hills, Barangay Busay, Cebu City.
Phase 2 of the project, estimated to be worth P1.3 billion, is set to be finished by the end of 2008. The P300-million loan from DBP will be used to partially finance the construction of the two towers in the second phase of the project.
Final phase
Towers 3 and 4, both 20-story buildings, will compose the second and final phase of the whole development.
The entire project has a combined investment of P2.3 billion.
Each tower in Phase 2 offers 108 units of two- and three-bedroom apartments. Sizes of the units range from 108 square meters to 140 square meters.
The 144 units comprising existing towers one and two, which were completed in 2000, have already been sold out, Yoon said.
He added that the buyers include local residents and foreigners who acquired the property mostly for rental purposes.
Rosalier Dagondon, DBP head for super region management office for Central Philippines 2, said the five-year term loan to Syntech is the first condominium-funded project of the bank in Cebu.
“Not biggest”
Syntech and DBP signed a finance loan agreement last Tuesday at the Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.
Dagondon said, though, the loan was “not the biggest in terms of amount.”
He said the bank’s financial assistance to Syntech is due to the company’s capacity to cater to dollar-earning markets, especially the overseas Filipino workers.
“We are involved in engagements that touch the lives of the people,” Dagondon said in an interview.
DBP supports long-term official development assistance funds to support projects in infrastructure and logistics, social services, micro and small medium enterprises, environment and commercial lending.
Yoon said after the project’s completion, Syntech will continue to look for high-end residential ventures in Cebu.
While he sees potentials in the condominium market, he said the demand for residential condominiums in Cebu is “slow.”
“It’s not easy here, not like in Singapore where it’s dense,” he said.
This development, he said, prompted the modification of Syntech’s plan to construct only four towers instead of the seven it originally planned. (MMM)
