Anvaya Cove Sea Breeze Verandas – More than most sports, golf is considered a lifestyle choice and many aficionados, given the chance, would tee off on a daily basis. When Southeast Asia-based expatriate Paul Temple decided last year to go into semi-retirement, he chose to do just that.

“I’m an avid golfer so I wanted to find a property in a place where I could play all day and also spend more time relaxing and writing,” explains the 58-year-old Canadian. After viewing properties in China, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, Temple eventually opted to purchase a PHP15 million (USD343,000) condominium unit at Anvaya Cove, a mixed-use golf and leisure community located near the Philippines’ Subic Bay.

Developed by Ayala Land Premier, the luxury residential wing of the country’s largest property developer, the 470-hectare project comprises a Golfplan-designed 18-hole golf course, as well as residential components divided into nine “neighbourhoods”, with some plots overlooking the course.

According to Jose Juan Jugo, head of Ayala Land Premier, Anvaya Cove, which launched a decade ago, has started to attract foreign buyers since the course opened last year. “The golf club has really put the icing on the cake,” he says. “We anticipate further interest in this sort of investment from what we see as a global market.” Jugo adds that investment opportunities are available to foreigners and the club also runs a condominium leasing programme that allows owners to make, on average, PHP3,500 (USD80) per night.

The growing popularity of residential golf course communities is not new to the region, although talk of investment schemes and timeshares does bring back memories of the niche market’s murky past in Southeast Asia. Certain projects, especially in Thailand, which has long been the region’s premier golf destination, became renowned for their shady investment schemes, ownership issues and the occasional bankruptcy.

A famous case is the rise and demise—and possible rise again—of Phuket’s Blue Canyon Country Club. Once one of Asia’s most celebrated courses—it twice hosted tournament and gained praise from golf legends such as Tiger Woods and Greg Norman—the club has spent the past decade stumbling from one calamity to the next. The owner, Murex, went bust in 2004, lawsuits were filed and court cases have rumbled on for the past nine years.

After a recent acquisition by local firm Ocean Group, however, things may be looking up.

“Compared to mature markets, like the US, where multi-million-dollar golf properties are the norm and speciality markets are established, buyers haven’t embraced golf enough to live in these often secluded estates,” says asset management and hospitality consultant Bill Barnett.

“In Southeast Asia, the golf property market has been something of a basket case.” He adds, however, that many of the less-desirable courses fell to the wayside after the ’97 Asian financial crisis and the new breed of golf communities, developed by property heavyweights, are banking on brand loyalty and additional luxuries.

Indeed, in an effort to drive investment from the wider market, many in the latest wave of courses and clubhouses, like Anvaya Cove, are being integrated into larger master-planned communities and offer residents lifestyle amenities including beach clubs, adventure facilities and retail outlets.

Some of the region’s leading high-end developers are also teaming up with global brands, namely Indochina Land’s collaboration with Colin Montgomerie on Danang-based property Montgomerie Links Vietnam and the DAMAC partnership with Trump Golf. The Middle East’s largest developer’s latest master development, AKOYA by DAMAC, set to comprise 7,000 residential units, will feature the first Trump-branded golf course in Asia.

Whilst Trump International Golf Course, Dubai is the company’s initial foray into Asia’s golf market, Donald Trump, president of The Trump Organization, is confident that the brand will expand its presence as the sport continues to take off around the region. “There is tremendous potential in Asia. It’s amazing, in fact,” he says. “I think it helps to see the world as an emerging market—there are so many locations that are terrific and for many reasons I’m optimistic when it comes to expanding because we’ve experienced tremendous success.”

But a big-name collaboration is not the only recipe for success. Some smaller, yet highly reputable courses with residential components have also benefitted front the resurgent demand for golf real estate.

The Thai coastal resort of Hua Hin and surrounding area is home to more than 20 courses, including the golf communities of Black Mountain and Palm Hills, both of which recently witnessed a surge in investment.

A British investor and founder of a Hua Hin-based boutique developer, who doesn’t wish to be named, purchased his first property at Palm Hills in 2002. He has since bought an additional 12 plots within the community on which he’s built three- and four-bedroom villas.

During the 12-year period, the Hua Hin resident of 30 years claims land prices have significantly increased. “Hua Hin, which has grown into one of the country’s leading golfing destinations, is an extremely active market and golf properties are selling each and every week,” he says.

“When I started buying plots and developing properties, I was paying about THB3 million (USD924,000) for 1.5 rai (2,400 sqm). Nowadays the same plots are going for more than THB7 million (USD215,650).”

The investor adds that overseas buyers, many of whom use the properties as holiday homes, have had a positive impact on the local market. Furthermore, the International Association of Golf Tour Operators notes that golf tourists spend an estimated 120 percent more than average tourists and regularly purchase second homes in favoured destinations.

Luxury residential real estate agent Sotheby’s, which for some time has focused on global golf property, last year launched a dedicated branch to handle the specialised market. The agent oversees some of the region’s top golf course communities, including Montgomerie Links Vietnam and Blue Canyon Country Club.

Sotheby’s Vietnam-based associate director Christopher Piro agrees that whilst tourism has played a major role in the market’s renaissance, the most significant factor is the increasing affluence of regional investors from the countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

“Rising salaries amongst Asia’s middle-classes has had a pretty significant impact on the market and they are looking especially for property priced around the USD500,000 mark,” he explains.

“This price level attracts, for example, directors from banks and other financial institutions, who are maybe making their second or third overseas investment and see golf property as an attractive alternative to more expensive real estate, with the added bonus of lifestyle amenities.”

Golf and leisure communities, both boutique and branded, will undoubtedly continue to emerge around the region to cater not only to the changing tastes of the region’ rapidly increasing middle class and the influx of international golf tourists, but to accommodate the future hub of the sport. As HSBC’s recent report Golf’s 2020 Vision notes: “It seems only a matter of time before the centre of gravity in the game moves to Asia. Just as the popularity of cricket in India means that the sub-continent has become the economic and political centre of the sport, so we expect to see the centre of the professional golf game move towards Asia.”

Source: Property Guru

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By: Henry Empeño

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) ended the past year with P1.2 billion in revenue generated from its seaport operations, posting a 3-percent annual increase on account of a 12-percent hike in the volume of containerized cargo processed in the Subic port.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the SBMA Seaport Department collected a total of P1,173,720,042 in revenue in the January-to-December period last year, compared to the P1.137 billion it made in 2016.

Eisma also attributed the growth in seaport income to “the continuing effort of the SBMA Seaport Department to upgrade its process flow.” She said this has minimized transaction time and attracted more importers and exporters to use the Port of Subic.

SBMA seaport figures indicated the volume of containerized cargo grew to 139,980 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2017, from just 124,707, TEUs in 2016.

This increase in containerized cargo had reportedly offset a 6-percent decrease last year in the volume of noncontainerized cargo, which fell to only 6,646,322 metric tons as against 7,071,444 metric tons in 2016.

SBMA data also showed that its Seaport Department processed 66,172 TEUs of imported containerized products in 2017, a 9-percent increase over the 60,593 TEUs processed in 2016.

Meanwhile, the department processed 25,007 TEUs of exported containerized products last year, which was 6 percent higher than the 23,527 TEUs in 2016.

The increase in import-export volume that passed through the Port of Subic also resulted in a significant increase of containerized cargoes transshipped in the free port: 1,462 TEUs from January to December 2017 against 368 TEUs in 2016, or an increase of 297 percent.

Jerome Martinez, head of the SBMA Seaport Department, said much of the increase in revenue was due to the growth in imported products like vehicle parts by Foton Motor Philippines Inc.; paper materials by Trust International Paper Corp.; and rubber by Yokohama Tire Philippines Inc., which were all sourced from Japan.

He said an increase in export revenue could also be attributed to increased export of tires by Yokohama Tires Philippines to Japan; Juken Sangyo Philippines for veneer lumber also to Japan; and HLD Clark Steel Pipe Co. for steel pipes to the United States.

Another factor in seaport revenue growth, Martinez said, was the implementation of Republic Act 10668, also known as the Foreign Ships Co-Loading Act, which allowed arriving or departing ships to carry a foreign cargo to its Philippine port of final destination, after being cleared at its port of entry or exit.

“This law tends to decrease, in some instances, vessel activities going to the Port of Subic, particularly in the importation and exportation of goods,” Martinez said.

“However, transshipment activities also increased.”

The devaluation of the peso against the US dollar and the unstable global price of crude oil in the world market, which caused a decline of the importation of petroleum products, also buoyed Subic seaport income, Martinez added.

Eisma expressed optimism for the Port of Subic this year, pointing out that one of the world’s largest cruise ships will be arriving here in June for a 12-hour tour of the Subic Bay area.

Eisma said the cruise-vacation giant Royal Caribbean International had confirmed this development after company officials led by Dr. Zinan Liu spent a two-day assessment of the Subic Bay area last December for the purpose of including Subic in the itinerary of RCI’s Asian cruise program.

Source: Business Mirror

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By Nick Giongco

With Manila as main hub, 2019 Southeast Asian Games chief of mission Monsour del Rosario identified four other venues of the biennial sportsfest: Bulacan, Zambales, Clark and Subic.

“These are the four other cities and I am also considering naming four different deputy CDMs for each city,” said Del Rosario, a champion taekwondo practitioner during his heyday.

Already officially named by Del Rosario to lend a helping hand are karate’s Raymond Lee and squash’s Robert Bachmann.

Del Rosario is also looking at Ada Milby of rugby and Jonne Go of canoe-kayak as two other deputies.

The final roster of sports to be played will be known this November, or one year before the 2019 SEAG.

The country is aiming to bounce back from a string of debacles stretching back to 2007 and Del Rosario insists that the immediate concern is to break into the top three.

“Top three is the target but I want to become No. 1,” he said, noting how the Philippines’ performance has stagnated through the years.

The one and only time the Philippines finished first was in 2005 when it the host country. After that, the performance dropped dramatically.

Still, Del Rosario swears that there have been major changes in the level of competition since 2005 and achieving the ultimate goal of winning the overall crown will be tough.

“Things have changed (a lot) from 2005 until 2019. There are lots of things that are different. You can see the difference. We can see how the world has changed.”

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SOUTHEAST Asian Games gold medalists Mark John Lexer Galedo and Marella Vania Salamat will head the men and women elite cast seeing action in the Pru Life UK’s PRUride PH 2018 beginning next weekend, January 11 to 14, in Subic, Zambales and on January 21 at McKinley West in Taguig City.

Free registration awaits Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) license holders in the men and women elite, men and women under-23, and men and women junior categories for the PRUride PH Professional Road Race.

Besides the honor of wearing the national champion’s jersey to be awarded by the sanctioning Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines (PhilCycling), the national federation for the sport, a total cash prize of more than PhP 1 million will go to the top finishers in all categories—plus the chance to ride in the Prudential RideLondon 2018 in July, all expenses paid.

The champions of the men and women elite categories for both PRUride Professional Road Race and PRUride Criterium will receive PhP 50,000 each, while the men under-23 category winners for all races will bring home PhP 20,000 each. The prizes in the men elite races are scaled down to the 20th place with the second and third placers getting PhP 25,000 and PhP 15,000, respectively.

The 136-kilometer road race for men and 120-km for women elite and men juniors is set simultaneously on January 12 on a route that will start and finish at the Subic Bay Exposition and Convention Center (SBECC). The route includes an arduous climb atop Mount Samat and a punishing ride over the hills of Morong in Bataan.

The individual time trial (ITT) for all categories, meanwhile, will be staged the next day on January 13 over a 30-km (for professionals) or a 15-km course (for amateurs) also on an out-and-back course at SBECC. PRUride PH 2018 also the 100- and 50-kilometer Gran Fondo events on January 14 in Subic.

Riders can also choose among the lineup of 14 race subcategories and display their skills on a circuit in the criterium race set on January 21 at McKinley West.

Register now at http://PRUride.PH!

Source: Pru Life U.K.

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By: Henry Empeño

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – A native Olongapeño has taken over the highest executive position at the Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc. (SBMEI), which operates the popular Ocean Adventure theme park and Camayan Beach Resort in this free port.

Robert Ianne Gonzaga, formerly the firm’s communication director, was elected president of the company during the annual shareholders’ meeting held last month, a statement from the SBMEI said.

Gonzaga, who is the first Filipino CEO of SBMEI, started out in the local broadcast media in Olongapo City, became a news correspondent for the BusinessMirror in 2014, and also wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and an international wire agency.

Gonzaga stepped into the position previously occupied by Scott Sharpe, who founded SBMEI, along with Timothy Desmond and Gail Laule, 17 years ago.

Other officials elected to the SBMEI board of directors were: Jack Lin, chairman; Alfredo Alex S. Cruz III, secretary; Susan L. Dudley, treasurer; and Manuel W. Quijano, board member.

SBMEI, the company that controls Ocean Adventure and Camayan Beach Resort and Hotel, has been in the tourism industry for 17 years as a company providing family-oriented activities and educational entertainment.

It built Ocean Adventure as the first open-water marine theme park in Southeast Asia. The park features animal shows, dolphin, encounters and other animal-encounter programs.

Subsequently, it opened the Camayan Beach Resort nearby, known for its clean beaches and natural setting.

Gonzaga said the SBMEI is now eyeing the opening of its Adventure Beach Water Park this year and will be expanding its tourism activities in the coming years.

Source: Business Mirror

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