THE Salimbangon Group of Companies is diversifying into new businesses outside the health and wellness space.
The company behind the Organique Acai Berry drink is now venturing into real estate and construction, which are two of the country’s economic growth drivers.
Catherine Salimbangon, the firm’s vice president, said they decided to diversify and expand their business after seeing the lucrative potential in real estate and construction.
“I believe in real estate investments,” said Salimbangon.
The company initially set up Giga Build Construction Corp., the construction company that built Organique’s manufacturing plant in Manila.
In 2015, the firm founded Baystreet Development Corp. (BDC), the group’s real estate arm that would convert the family’s properties in Manila and Cebu into viable housing projects.
Salimbangon said they currently have condominium and townhouse projects, mostly located in Manila, which are in various stages of development.
BDC’s flagship project is a 30-unit residential townhouse complex located in Mercedes Executive Village. This project is built in the boundary of Pasig and Cainta, Metro Manila.
This year, the company will bring the BDC brand to Cebu through its 300-unit walk-up condominium project in Minglanilla.
Salimbangon said the project will consist of three buildings with units priced at least P2.5 million each.
Besides Minglanilla, the company also plans to develop its properties in Busay and Talamban, Cebu City into profitable housing ventures.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) 7 earlier identified construction as one of the growth drivers of Central Visayas in 2018, which saw its economy rose 7.6 percent.
In 2018, the region’s construction sector went up by 14.2 percent. The sector posted a significant improvement both in terms of the number of construction projects and in terms of value.
Cebu had the most number of new constructions in 2018, followed by Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
Meanwhile, property research firm Colliers International Philippines sees a sustained demand for residential projects in Cebu, particularly in the condominium segment.
By the end of 2021, Colliers sees Metro Cebu’s condominium stock growing by 16 percent to 45,070 units, or an addition of 2,100 units delivered per year from 2019 to 2021.
In 2018, Colliers reported that total take-up of condominiums reached 4,200 units. House and lots, on the other hand, recorded a total take-up of 2,500 units.
Colliers said affordable and economic house and lot units recorded a strong take-up last year. These are the projects with an average price of P1.7 million (US$32,100) to P3.2 million ($60,400) per unit.
The affordable segment accounted for 33 percent of the total take-up while the economic segment covered 23 percent.
Colliers believes that these two segments will continue to fuel the horizontal demand over the next three years.