Federal Land, the property development arm of GT Capital Holdings, Inc., is keen on locating its future projects in the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod.

“We are looking for properties both in Iloilo and Bacolod that we can develop,” said John Cabato, Federal Land senior vice president and head of sales and marketing, during last week’s roundtable discussion at Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.

“For vertical developments, the minimum (lot area) is 2,000 square meters. In terms of horizontal developments, basically what we would want is a minimum of 10 hectares,” Micheal Salazar, head of Federal Land’s Product Planning Department, told reporters from Iloilo and Bacolod.

Federal Land is the developer of Marco Polo Residences, a luxury condominium development in Nivel Hills Lahug, Cebu City.

According to Cabato, Federal Land sees the interconnection between Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo as a major commerce and tourism hub in the Visayas.

“With all three cities home to international airports, Cebu, Bacolod and Iloilo have direct access to an influx of expatriates and tourism from different parts of Asia and the rest of the world,” he said.

The Federal Land official said the Visayas sustains its “robust” economy that has been attracting investors to the region.

In his presentation, Cabato cited the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index 2018 by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) wherein Bacolod, Cebu and Iloilo are in the top 15 most competitive highly urbanized cities in the country based on economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure and resiliency.

“With this positive environment, businesses like business process outsourcing (BPO) have moved out from Metro Manila to establish offices in Cebu and Bacolod, also with many investors eyeing Iloilo for expansion with its recent infrastructure developments,” he said.

The Visayas also continues to be a strong region in terms of real estate investments.

According to research group Numbeo, the rental yield, or the annual rent to house price ratio, for properties in Cebu City is at 4.63 percent, at par with Metro Manila’s 4.98 percent.

Key cities in the Visayas pose much promise as well, with Iloilo posting a rental yield of 4.58 percent outside the city center, Dumaguete at 3.67 percent and Bacolod clocking in rental yield of 9.36 percent at the city center.

“Everytime when we talk about the region, when talk about Bacolod, Iloilo and Cebu, we look at it as one big market as we should,” said Cabato.IMT