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A HONG
KONG-based diamond trader and his Cebuana wife will
build budget housing for employees of business process
outsourcing companies in the Cebu export zone.
The company, MCF Property Ventures
Corp., will invest a total of P1 billion for its initial
project.
MCF Property chairman Mariquita
Salimbangon-Yeung said that the project—Bayswater
Homes—in Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, is the first of its
kind when it comes to low- to middle-cost housing
projects in Cebu.
“Our houses are very affordable. The
quality is there and the ambiance is top class,”
Salimbangon-Yeung told BusinessMirror. “We have spent
much of our investment in building amenities for our
clients, not just building them a box to live in.”
Salimbangon-Yeung, a leading personality
in the charity organization, called Operation Smile,
said the socialized housing units inside a subdivision
is part of her company’s effort to help Cebuanos find a
decent house in a comfortable and secure environment.
Her husband, Carlos KH Yeung of Hong
Kong’s Fairway Diamond Co. Ltd and Simplex Diamond Co.
Ltd., is the vice chairman in the Philippine holding
company MSY Holdings.
The company’s earlier projects were the
Mactan Island Memorial Garden and a joint venture with
Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Inc.—Greenwoods—in
Cebu City.
Bayswater consists of more than 1,000
units in an 8.8-hectare property. Phase One, with 395
units, have already been sold out, according to
marketing officer Ken Salimbangon.
Estimates by government agencies put
business process outsourcing employees in Metro Cebu at
20,000 in 2006. Most of them work for contact center
firms in Cebu City, Asiatown IT Park in particular.
Yeung said housing has become so
expensive and development projects are mostly in
northern Cebu—too far and too expensive ordinary
employees.
The Mactan Economic Zone in Lapu-Lapu
contributes an estimated P2 billion to the local economy
in the form of salaries of 50,000 workers and purchase
of supplies by the locators.
“The workers at MEPZ [Mactan Economic
Processing Zone] have to travel many hours from
different towns [in the mainland]. If they could only
afford decent housing near their work place, I’m sure
they would be willing to invest,” Yeung said.
Aside from being close to the economic
zone and the
Mactan
Cebu International
Airport, the Bayswater project is also near the popular
resort strip in Marigondon.
Project consultant AS Enrqiuez
Engineering Consultancy has assured the construction of
adequate underground drainage systems against the
problem of flooding that is common Lapu-Lapu. |
