Indestructible force set to make new mark in PH real estate
Business tycoon Manuel B. Villar Jr. is embarking on a highly ambitious pursuit.
While this self-made billionaire already has an impressive real estate footprint spanning 600,000 homes across 1,200 communities, he is now scaling further to build a modern megacity, designed to make more success stories like his possible. In this emerging city, education opens eyes, homes provide stability, commercial spaces enable successful enterprises, and modern infrastructure ties it all together into a functioning whole.
This is his lofty vision for the 3,500-hectare Villar City, where he is creating bigger and better blueprints of opportunities across an expansive network of districts spanning 13 cities and towns in Metro South.
Foundations of progress
“We have already done a lot for Villar City, but we have even more projects in the pipeline,” Villar said in an interview with Inquirer Property.
According to Villar, they have plans for a total of six hospitals, 10 churches and chapels, 12 universities, and 12 malls across Villar City. These core institutions—meant to support how people live, learn, and move—build on earlier developments already underway, including the 18-hole Villar City Golf Course designed by Curley-Wagner Golf Design; The Stadium at Villar City, a 30,000-sqm sports complex being developed with All-Star Properties; and the University of the Philippines (UP) Technology and Innovation Campus.
For Villar, all these are meant to put in place the foundations that shape progress.
And at the center of that is education. A graduate of University of the Philippines Diliman, Villar has long credited it as a turning point—one that broadened his perspective and opened doors. That belief is built into Villar City itself, with land allocated for schools and universities, positioning education alongside housing and commerce from the outset.
Building for movement
But foundations alone are not enough. For a city to work, it also has to move.
“As it is, we have already built communities here. We have malls, cafes, restaurants, and offices. But we are going to be even more aggressive this time. Villar City is ready and open for business,” Villar said.
From here, the focus shifts to building economic activity by creating spaces where enterprise can take root and grow. The goal is to turn presence into activity, and activity into opportunity.
Villar cited as an example the Emporia district, rising as Villar City’s international trade and commercial hub. The 100-ha district brings together business, culture, and community through walkable streets, modern retail concepts, and flexible commercial spaces anchored by SOMO and The Crescent.
“We see Emporia as a large-scale trading hub, positioned as the ‘Divisoria of the South’ where furniture, showrooms, and flagship stores can be built,” Villar said.
The group, he further disclosed, is also planning to build Promenade in the 65-ha Evia district, eyed to complement the existing Evia Lifestyle Mall and cater to the surrounding communities. This space is targeted to bring together retail, leisure, and foot traffic into a continuous corridor to create movement of people, goods, and course, capital.
As it is, the Evia district is eyed to have galleries, installations, live performances, and open spaces that encourage cultural engagement. Its retail, entertainment, and landscaped environments give Evia a distinct civic energy that complements the city’s commercial zones.
1 million homes
Despite the scale of the plan, Villar’s focus remains anchored on housing—the throughline that connects his earliest ventures to his most ambitious plans.
Through Brittany, Crown Asia, Camella, and Lessandra, he has built over 600,000 homes across 1,200 communities. It’s a staggering number that to him, is still unfinished. After all, the “need for housing will always be there for as long as there are people.”
In Villar City alone, for example, the megacity is expected to be home to some 10 million people at full build. This will require the group to build more “beautiful homes” in themed communities for Filipinos across segments.
“My dream now is to build 1 million homes,” he added. These homes, he explained, will not only offer roof over their heads but also stability, dignity, security, progress—a perfect starting point for bigger and better opportunities ahead.
And this is what Villar City is all about: creating blueprints of opportunities so that more deserving Filipinos can rise, build, and begin again.
