Every now and then we come across people who are truly passionate about their work and who have contributed immensely to their field but have yet to receive the recognition they truly deserve.
One such person is Romarico T. Alvarez, better known as Bing to his colleagues in the business. Bing Alvarez has been a silent, yet effective, performer in the property-development business, leading his company P.A. Properties to become one of the best residential developers in Luzon.
Although P.A. Properties may not yet be a household name in local residential development much like Ayala Land, Robinsons, SMDC and even Camella Homes, the company has already made a mark in the field, particularly in Laguna, Cavite, and Batangas.
And that’s just the beginning for P.A. Properties has already begun to widen its reach to include Northern Luzon, starting with Bulacan and Pampanga.
Beginnings
In a legacy business, like real estate, longevity is everything. But while P.A. Properties has been around for quite some time, it has always been happy silently doing its thing and growing the business away from the limelight.
The real-estate company was established in September of 1993 as a single proprietorship known as P.A. Alvarez Realty. Its first residential subdivision project was in San Pedro, Laguna, and was comprised of 200 units that were completely sold in less than four months of selling.
“We started developing properties during the term of former President Fidel V. Ramos and, at that time, circumstances, regulatory-wise, was conducive to small developers like us,” noted Alvarez, as he recalls the early days of P.A. Properties. “So, the first thing we did was to convert 2.3 hectares of rice fields near the boundary of San Pedro and Muntinlupa into a high-quality residential subdivision,” he added.
Then in 1994, building on the success of its San Pedro development and already known as P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corp. with Alvarez as president and CEO, the company started work on its second residential subdivision project in Laguna, but this time in Biñan. Other projects soon followed, in similar key areas in Southern Tagalog, like Cabuyao, Laguna, Cavite and Batangas.
The company’s growth from then on was exponential and by 2011, P.A. Properties had already completed a total of 12,000 homes.
Serving the backlog
Despite the fact that we often hear residential developments being done left and right, the truth of the matter is that, as of today, there is still a housing backlog of 5 million units. And that’s a lot. In fact, this backlog cannot be met by a single developer alone. In this regard, Alvarez believes that as long as real-estate companies put their minds into the problem and cooperate instead of competing in the residential development arena, the country can yet erase this backlog.
“Residential developers do not really have to compete with one another. There is such a huge backlog of houses that we need as many developers as we can to meet this underserved need,” Alvarez stressed. “After all, we are all bound by the same advocacy to serve the housing backlog,” he siad. Clearly, what really moved him to develop properties as he did was a desire to serve the housing needs of Southern Luzon.
Risk-taking, transparency, and vision
“Much of P.A. Properties” growth and longevity can be attributed to Alvarez’s vision, foresight and sound fundamentals. He knows how to spot opportunities amid risks—like purchasing foreclosed lands and subdivisions and transforming them into complete, usable residential developments.
Jonathan Lu, president of P.A. Properties and Alvarez’s friend and partner in growing the company, chimes in on the chairman’s vision and sound fundamentals: “During the Asian crisis in the late 1990s, the economy was at a standstill and there were billions of pesos worth of properties foreclosed by banks. Alvarez saw this as an opportunity to make good use of foreclosed land.”
Although he is a risk-taker by nature, Alvarez also has a knack for sound financial management and knows how to anticipate financial challenges even before they come, own them and then make moves to address them at the outset. This, plus a radical transparency, was what really carried P.A. Properties through the years.
Between the two friends, Lu is the more pragmatic one, focusing on ensuring that the company’s operations run smoothly every hour of every day. Interestingly, he believes that real estate is more than just a business, but a public service, as well. According to Lu, “When the real-estate industry is booming, many other industries boom, as well.”
Indeed, the thriving of a country’s real-estate industry is largely an indicator of economic prosperity. And as Lu puts it succinctly: “The growth of real estate spurs the growth of 147 other related businesses in the value chain.”
Creating partnerships
Another area that P.A. Properties is strong at is in creating partnerships—whether it be with companies like banks or with the communities they serve. “We do not focus on competing, but on creating partnerships,” said Alvarez, stressing his belief that the real-estate market is big enough for all players and their supporters.
And in terms of partnerships, that of P.A. Properties Alvarez and Lu is the kind of power partnership that has created a kind of synergy, which spurred their company’s growth, what with the former’s vision and financial brilliance and the latter’s operational excellence.
I believe that what ultimately defines a company would be its core values and a transformative mind-set, which I see in P.A. Properties’s efforts in embracing risks and transforming them into opportunities; engaging partners, whether they be banks or the community; and ensuring transparency in every aspect of company operations.
All these come together to create what probably is the most important real estate company in the country that you have most likely never heard of yet.