How much will you cough up to live in a gated community in Metro Manila?
I came across a fascinating post by RE/MAX Capital co-founder Juan Patag, who listed the asking prices of the most expensive homes in Metro Manila's premium gated subdivisions. The numbers read like a stock ticker that forgot how to stop.
THE MIDDLE MARKET'S UPPER CEILING
In Eastland Heights, a 584-square-meter lot goes for around P11.3 million. In Town and Country in Marikina and Antipolo, that won't even buy a 236-square-meter house, now listed at P13.7 million. The brokers I spoke with call this the upper bracket of the middle market.
Valley Golf, San Jose Village and Filinvest homes ask P30 million to P32 million. Then the ladder skips a few rungs: around P50 million in Vista Real Classica and Mira-Nila Homes in Quezon City.
Hold your horses. Xavierville, Capitol Hills Golf and San Miguel Village are now at P60 million to P70 million. Alabang Hills and West Triangle Homes sit around P77 million for 400 to 500 square meters. Blue Ridge and Philam Homes, on lots the same size, ask P88 million to P95 million. Same footprint, an extra P18 million for the zip code.
WHERE THE ZEROS START MULTIPLYING
La Vista lists at P207 million for 1,372 square meters. Valle Verde 6, at P244 million, gives you only 840 square meters. North Greenhills and Corinthian Gardens run P430 million to P490 million for 800 to 900 square meters. Urdaneta Village asks around P620 million for 1,093 square meters.
By the time I reached Dasmariñas Village — P656 million for 1,000 square meters — it almost looked reasonable. That's how delusional this list made me.
I couldn’t help dividing. La Vista works out to about P151,000 per square meter; Blue Ridge, roughly P200,000. The house that costs more than twice as much is the cheaper buy by the meter. Valle Verde 6 jumps to about P290,000. Past that, you're paying half a million pesos per square meter just to open the gate: around P540,000 in North Greenhills and Corinthian, P567,000 in Urdaneta, P656,000 in Dasma.
THE BILLION-PESO BACKYARD
The top of Patag's list: P1.5 billion for a 2,000-square-meter mansion in Forbes Park. That's P750,000 per square meter. Real estate friends tell me some Forbes valuations now touch P3 billion to P4 billion, though most of those homes aren't for sale. The owners don't need the money, and the buyers can't open the door, whatever they do.
Which brings me to a lunch with a dear friend. Two siblings in showbiz, he said, grew up in what is now one of those P1.5-billion Forbes Park homes. Their father may have bought it in the '70s for less than a couple of million pesos.
Run that math — P2 million to P1.5 billion over five decades — and you get about 14 percent a year, compounded, for doing absolutely nothing but staying put. Few fund managers can say the same.
Of course, the siblings didn't coast. Their projects, businesses and social media following show they've built fortunes of their own, inheritance or not. The house just happens to be the best-performing asset in the family.
Guess who?