AMERICAN fictionist Edward Abbey once said that a crowded society is a restrictive society.
We who live in crowded Metro Manila know that nothing can be truer than this. It has come to a point that we all have to deal with vehicle gridlocks, practically on a daily basis, which only become a lot worse when it rains.
As the country’s foremost economic center and the nation’s seat of the government, Metro Manila has understandably been the focus of property development in the past few decades. However, and I have written about this quite a few times already, Metro Manila’s saturation level in terms of population and vehicle volume has already reached a critical stage, and looking elsewhere for areas that are ripe for developing has become imperative for property developers today.
Looking to the South
In one of its recent reports, online property portal Lamudi Philippines mentions that in 2016 developers will be looking more aggressively to the outskirts of Metro Manila for new projects. Indeed, pretty soon, land to develop will be hard to come by in the metropolis and, as such, it is a good idea to already start developing property in the rural-urban fringes of the metropolis in order to gain some headway in the decentralization of the nation’s capital region.
When talking about rural-urban fringe areas in relation to Metro Manila, the first place that naturally comes to mind is, of course, the Calabarzon region, which has recently become a favorite of many property developers. Made up of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, Calabarzon is the region closest to Metro Manila and is just an hour or so away by car. And due to its proximity to the National Capital Region, the region has seen rapid industrial growth and urbanization in recent time.
It’s plain to see that the Calabarzon region is practically set up to be the next major metropolis. The region is the second-largest contributor to the national GDP, accounting for P1.644 trillion, or 17 percent, of the GDP. It is, thus, regarded as the Philippines’s second-most economically important region after Metro Manila. Considering these, it just makes sense that developers look to this region for mixed-use projects.
Major residential developments in the works
Big property developers, like Ayala Land, Megaworld and Vista Land, already have major projects in Calabarzon region. For instance, Ayala Land has been aggressively developing Nuvali, the company’s first and largest eco-city in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
I believe Nuvali is some sort of a game-changer in the rural residential development arena. Despite being some 40 kilometers away from Makati’s Central Business District, Nuvali has attracted the attention of serious residential property buyers and investors, and with good reason. The estate is a master-planned mixed-use township complete with everything that the modern Filipino family wants and needs, such as commercial establishments, office buildings, wide-open spaces and roads lined with greenery.
Aside from the Nuvali estate, Ayala Land also recently launched the 700-hectare Vermosa, the company’s first master-planned community in Cavite and its third-largest master-planned estate in the country to date, after Nuvali in Laguna and Alviera in Pampanga. At least 60 percent of the entire Vermosa estate will be for horizontal residential developments, while about a fourth of the entire development, or a total land area of 165 hectares, will be for wide-open spaces.
And, of course, there are the master-planned communities in Tagaytay City, the jewel of the leisure real-estate market, such as Megaworld’s Twin Lakes and SM Prime’s Tagaytay Highlands. These developments contribute to make living in the region such an attractive proposition.
Infrastructure projects boost accessibility
One other thing going for Calabarzon as the next major metropolis is the fact that major infrastructure projects are being pushed for implementation and completion to complement the region’s rapid urbanization. The R-1 Extension, Daang-Hari Road (Cala East-West Road), North-South Road, Cala Expressway, LRT 1 Extension, and the Ternate-Nasugbu Road are only some of the projects that, when completed, would make going to and from Calabarzon a breeze.
One other thing that makes the Calabarzon region such an interesting place to live in is that it is rich in local history. Historical monuments and landmarks, old churches and shrines line the region’s landscape. Aside from these, the region was home to countless historical events, which makes it truly easy to fall in love with the place.
I am truly excited at the realization of the tremendous potential that the Calabarzon region offers. With major property developers, as well as smaller but equally passionate real-estate companies working all at once to shape the region into a residential haven and an economic powerhouse, moving out of Metro Manila will no longer be such a difficult and sometimes even scary prospect.
Image credits: nuvali.ph, twinlakes.ph
2 comments
Have you experienced already the horrible congestion in Calamba and Los Baños ?
There are vast undeveloped elevated lands in the east especially in Rizal,Laguna,and Infanta, Quezon. Tanay can rival Tagaytay City as a summer get away while Infanta( Real, Infanta,Gen. Nakar) Quezon can rival Metro Manila as a metropolis in the east with International container seaport.