Ayala Land ramps up Vertis North development
BY ANGELICA BALLESTEROS
SOURCE:
http://www.manilatimes.net/ayala-land-ramps-vertis-north-development/335092/

CONGLOMERATE Ayala Corp.’s property unit Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) is accelerating the development of Ayala Vertis North in Quezon City amid robust demand for its residential offerings.

“Originally, we expected the project to take 10 to 15 years, but now we’re seeing that in about 10 years this will be completed. We received a great response from Quezon City” buyers, Vertis North head Jay Teodoro told reporters recently.

“We had to accelerate the development because of the brisk sales of our residential developments,” he added.
Ayala Vertis North is a P65-billion project of the Ayala group in partnership with the National Housing Authority (NHA) and is envisioned to be a central business district in QC.

The first phase of Vertis North, which includes the mall and the residential and hotel components, was formally launched last week while the second phase is expected to break ground next year.

Teodoro said roughly 12 to 13 hectares of the land are still occupied by informal settlers.

“In the past couple of years, there’s been significant progress in terms of negotiation with the settlers. In fact, two years ago, the people’s organization who represents about 90 percent of the families in the informal settler area has agreed to voluntarily relocate. So right now, we’re just waiting for the completion of the two relocation sites they have chosen.”

“In the coming weeks, we expect to see some progress because the first site was already completed and the second site we broke ground last November. So we expect to start relocation by the end of the year and completion of entire relocation by end 2018,” he explained.

Teodoro said the company will start to break ground on the second phase once the NHA finishes relocating the settlers.

“As soon as the property is clear, [we]will start. I think they [NHA] made a press release already that they wanted to start the project,” he said.

Two more residential projects

ALI is set to develop two more residential projects at Vertis North, on top of the existing residential towers Avida Sola, Alveo’s High Park, and Avida Vita.

“We expect to launch the second tower of Avida Sola. Right now, we have just launched the first tower. Next year or towards end of the year, we will be launching another Alveo residential tower, but this time it’s a different development,” Teodoro said.

Currently, the towers operated by Vita at Vertis North are already 97 percent sold.

“The three towers are 97 percent sold. Sola the first tower is, I think, doing really well. I’m not really sure. The two towers are more than 80 percent sold, I think,” Teodoro said.

“Based on the performance of our previous developments, normally it takes us only about a year to sell out one tower,” he added.

Currently, Sola is selling at P125,000 per square meter (sqm) while High Park is around P145,000 per sqm. Vita, on the other hand, started to sell at P90,000 per sqm during the launch, but has now appreciated to about P125,000 per sqm.

Teodoro said based on previous developments, the units at these towers will appreciate by 6 to 7 percent every year.

Ayala Land is one of the leading developers of estates, offering a diverse mix of properties such as residential, retail, office, hotels and leisure developments.

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