The redemption of Jacinto Ng Jr.
(Last of four parts)
We conclude this series on the triumphs and travails of real-estate whiz Jacinto “Jack” Ng Jr., who finally succeeded when in Holy Week 2016, he resolved to glorify the Lord by centering their property enterprise Elanvital Enclaves and developer Raemulan Lands, Inc., on the less fortunate rather than on himself.
Some people doubted whether Jack would succeed, but “I really believed in my business model. I knew it would work.”
Jack projected selling 60 units a month, an optimistic estimate that was already higher than what they achieved in the 1990s.
But during the first month of launch in November 2016, Jack and his team sold 200 houses, and another 200 the month after. By the following year starting in June, they were selling 600 units a month, ten times their initial projections.
This success does not come without its own challenges. Comparing the turnover of a socialized housing unit with the usual condominium, Jack says, “You have to sell five to six times as many units to get the same profit as one condo unit. You have to work five to six times as hard. That is where the heart comes in.”
Once, his father asked him, “Why do you think you are successful?” Jack said, “Well, buyers just have to submit their qualifications, get the Pag-Ibig loan approved, wait for us to build, and will have a house in a matter of months. It is much faster and less painful than the status quo.
“But 600 units a month is beyond my imagination, and unheard of in the Philippine market. I certainly don’t think I’m that smart to have figured this out all by myself! So to me the real answer is the grace of God. I’m now more vocal and visible with my own spirituality.”
Jack walks the talk. “Hyperinflation impacted the country after [COVID-19], and with the Ukraine invasion, threatened the stability of socialized housing. So in 2023, we synergized our housing, energy and foundation groups to develop the first-in-the-world utility-grade 6.5-megawatt peak (MWp) solar energy on the rooftops of more than 2,000 houses through Solaris, our new renewable energy company. Solaris subsidizes the cost of socialized housing in exchange for homeowners granting Solaris the use of their rooftops for its solar energy generation.”
Solaris hits several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: “It sustains homefulness, clean energy self-sufficiency, environmental care, food security and public-private partnerships to address systemic poverty.”
“Moving forward, I want to institutionalize the business beyond my lifetime by quintupling yearly housing units to 50,000, developing 150 MWp of rooftop solar energy to generate 1,000 MWp within five years, and inventing new affordable housing products, while staying true to my mission.”
Faithfulness in mission is a recipe for success for another subsidiary, The Empress Dining Palace, a fine-dining Chinese restaurant in Bonifacio Global City.
“We launched in September 2019, and in December the pandemic started to hit,” says Jack. “I told the employees that we will probably have to close. But they said, ‘If you remain open, we will do everything, we can find a way.’ So we were in it together.”
“We were practically the only Chinese restaurant open during the lockdown in that area. We used self-heating takeaway containers for delivery, and bento box catering for big events like remote weddings, where boxes were personalized with the couple’s names and faces. In one experiment, we delivered to 60 people, the furthest north in Bulacan, the furthest south in Alabang, and all the meals arrived within one hour.”
“Today the waiters and staff are very close-knit. They understand more of the business, too, which is part of our community thrust: Empress is one way for Chinoy and Pinoy communities to bond together.”
How does Jack summarize his story so far? “As one of struggle, but also redemption, as we honor what my father started decades ago, serving the low-income housing market.”
Queena N. Lee-Chua is with the board of directors of Ateneo’s Family Business Center. Get her book “All in the Family Business” at Lazada or Shopee, or the ebook version at Amazon, Google Play, Apple iBooks. Contact the author at blessbook.chua@gmail.com.
