BELTON Communities Inc., the affordable housing arm of listed Eton Properties Philippines Inc., would intensify the sale of its products to non-US overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in light of a slowdown in the US economy.

Senior assistant vice president for business development and project general manager Tonton Gatuslao said they would actively market affordable housing to OFWs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Eton International marketing managers would be assigned to these countries to present the project to OFWs.

Belton’s maiden project is the North Belton Communities, a mid-rise condo township near the major malls in Quezon City.

North Belton is within an expansive 13.8-hectare lot along Quirino Highway in Novaliches, Quezon City, readily accessible through main thoroughfares like Edsa, NLEX, Quirino Highway, Tandang Sora, Congressional Road and via the MRT.

“US-based Filipinos are in the higher-income brackets, so we would like our marketing efforts to be in that direction especially for our prime developments. But we are partially diverting efforts from this market because the US economy is currently weakening and is marred with subprime woes,” said Gatuslao.

The company would use North Belton as a springboard for the new marketing strategy.

The first residential phase—The Manors—occupies 3.3 hectares within the township project. It comprises 14 five-story mid-rise buildings.

“Two-bedroom units are available for as low as P1.18 million,” Gatuslao added.

The OFW market offers a huge potential for real estate and property development. As of end-2007, OFW remittances reached $14.4 billion. A significant portion of that went to the acquisition of houses, condos and residential lots.

Other real-estate developers in the country like Ayala Land, Filinvest Land and Megaworld are also stepping up efforts to attract more OFWs to invest in projects that answer the customers’ need in terms of room dimensions and type of finishing.

BELTON Communities Inc., the affordable housing arm of listed Eton Properties Philippines Inc., would intensify the sale of its products to non-US overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in light of a slowdown in the US economy.

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