Industry upsurge ahead, says Property Man 2024 Romero II
While warning against environmental, economic and geopolitical challenges worldwide, the top awardee of the recently concluded Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards sees an “industry upsurge” based on global investment trajectories.
Named “Property Man of the Year” by the Philippine chapter of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) during its 2024 Prix D’ Excellence Awards, Dr. Reghis M. Romero II said the country’s real estate industry “stands to benefit from the general trend in the international flow of investments” favoring the Southeast Asian region.
Positive growth
Dr. Romero II cited the World Investment Report 2024 from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) pointing to Southeast Asia as the only region in Asia that posted positive growth in foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2023.
While the growth is only one percent to $226 billion from $223 billion, the uptick is made significant by the -8 percent decline in all of developing Asia—at -9 percent in East Asia, -37 percent in South Asia, -9 percent in West Asia, and -27 percent in Central Asia.
Dr. Romero II also underscored similar declines in FDI inflows to developing economies in Europe, North America, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Approved investments
“But consistent with FDI growth trend in Southeast Asia, the Philippines has been attracting foreign capital from January to May this year,” Dr. Romero II emphasized.
Over that period, the Department of Trade and Industry’s Board of Investments recorded some P640 billion worth of approved investments for a 14 percent increase year on year, the highest first five-month approval in the agency’s 57-year history. The rise in investment approvals is consistent with the upsurge in FDIs as reported by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In the first quarter of 2024, the BSP posted a 42.07 percent increase in net inflows, reaching $2.97 billion from $2.09 billion in the same period last year.
The country’s tourism receipts as of end March meanwhile accounted for P157.62 billion, reflecting a 120.7 percent recovery rate from the P130.59 billion revenue gained from the same period in 2019 or before the global lockdowns ground the industry to a halt. That amount came from almost two million foreign tourists out of the 7.7 million targeted for 2024.
“All of such capital and revenue streams involving mostly local content will essentially entail property development for their industrial, commercial, logistical and even residential requirements. Now add to that the government’s annual infrastructure spending target at 5 percent of GDP and you’ll have a perfect recipe for the property industry’s phenomenal growth,” Dr. Romero II explained.
Diversified firm
Dr. Romero II chairs the highly diversified RMR Capital Inc., whose subsidiaries cover practically all sectors involved in nation-building. R-II Builders is principally engaged in land, housing and infrastructure development; Philippine Ecology Systems in solid waste, sewage and environmental management systems; R Land in property and real estate; and Harbour Centre Port Terminal–Subic in port operations.
Other companies under his watch are Ecotoll Road Development Corporation, Aerorail Integrated Transport and Services Inc., and Mega Harbour Port and Development Inc.—all fully operational in responding to infrastructure development needs of the country.
All these companies and their projects indicate how much Dr. Romero II knows whereof he speaks while graphically characterizing just what FIABCI’s Property Man of the Year ought to be.
