World-class Pianist Finds Good Deal in PHINMA Properties

February, 2007.

World-class musician finds a good deal in Phinma Properties’ Spazio Bernardo West Villas

Internationally renowned pianist Raul Sunico, praised for his “unusual gifts of lyricism and poetry in his playing, as well as great brilliance” by his eminent mentor, Sascha Gorodnitzki, has earned international recognition as a concert pianist, orchestral soloist and a composer-arranger of Philippine music.

After a two-and-a-half decade stint overseas, with New York as the last place where he lived and parlayed his talent into acclaim, Sunico returned to the Philippines in 2001 to accept an invitation to head University of Sto. Tomas’s College of Music as its dean.

Back in his homeland, Sunico soon enough found himself investing his hard-earned savings in prime properties in Metro Manila.

Whilst maintaining their ancestral house in Banawe, Quezon City, which he shares with his mother, Sunico decided to acquire two adjoi-ning units in a posh condominium building along Roxas Boulevard, Manila. This is where he parked his collection of choice pieces of furniture he bought throughout his years of stay in New York.

“I shipped pieces of furniture I fancied and bought for my apartment in New York. I am happy to have them here with me although it cost me a lot in shipping them,” quipped Sunico.

A collector not only of quality and attractive furniture but also of good property investments, Sunico would later find himself getting a unit in a condominium community along Mindanao Avenue, Quezon City. He said he found a diamond in the rough in PHINMA Property Holdings Corporation’s (PHINMA Properties) Spazio Bernardo West Villas.

In an interview, Sunico shared that he was then looking for a place to stay near a restaurant business he put up south of Quezon City. Upon learning about Spazio Bernardo, he imme-diately took interest in investing in the expansion site to the existing eleven-villa condominium township. Dubbed as the “West Villas,” the expansion site was just starting its groundwork and was being offered at more affordable pre-selling rates at the time Sunico came to inquire and see the project.

Spazio Bernardo West Villas comprises four medium-rise buildings being built on a two-thirds hectare lot adjacent to Spazio Bernardo’s 1.6-hectare development. The West Villas will add another 319 value-for-money condo units to the Italian-inspired community’s existing 957 units.

PHINMA Properties President Willie J. Uy said in a previous interview that his company is into a niche market of affordable yet comfortable medium-rise condominium housing units: “With construction started in November of last year, the West Villas is only one of the projects we have in the pipeline. We are also planning to develop a Spanish-inspired community in a 1.5 hectare property in Commonwealth Avenue. A third and probably the most ambitious project is a 3.1 hectare site in Sucat,

Parañaque which will feature three segments: townhouses, five-story walkups and 11-storey buildings with elevators, for which we even hired a master-planning expert with exten-sive experience in Singapore housing developments.”

PHINMA Properties AVP for Marketing & Design Grant Orbeta says that in the West Villas, we developed new 36 sq.m. units – expandable to 72 sq.m. (two adjoined units) or 108 sq.m. (three adjoined units) – in response to the needs of buyers who need bigger space but at the same time keeping within PHINMA Properties's affordable market level. Spazio Bernardo originally sold only 30-square meter units, with buyers having the option to purchase ad-joining units to expand their floor space to 60 or 90 square meters.

He also stated that the West Villas offers value-added features not commonly found in affordable housing such as modular kitchen counters, aluminum windows, tiled flooring, and painted walls and ceilings. Orbeta adds that they also  hired a feng shui consultant to ensure that the new homes will bring luck and prosperity into the lives of the buyers.

Noteworthy, the units will be ready for turnover by the first quarter of this year only after less than five months from the start of its construction, West Villas is already practically sold out with just a few select units left.         

Successfully positioning itself as a leader in affordable medium-rise condominium development – probably the only one in its league to be able to offer units conveniently located in the Metropolis at a pre-selling price range of P500,000 to P800,000 through PAG IBIG and in-house financing, PHINMA Property targets home-buyers belonging to the upper and lower B, and upper C markets.

To this, Sunico says, “I have to praise PHINMA Properties for coming up with such a good project which gives not just the upper-class income brackets but even the middle to lower brackets a chance to acquire a condo unit at such a nice community.”

The musician extraordinaire adds, “I can’t wait to design my unit and add beautiful pieces of furniture into it.”

PHINMA Properties, the first property developer in the country to be triple-certified for quality, environment and safety, is a leader in affordable medium-rise housing with close to 5,000 affordable condo units built to date. Strategically located in major urban centers, PHINMA Properties’s projects offer many value-added features not commonly found in affordable housing. Moreover, Phinma Properties’s building system allows the company to deliver units in record time without compromising quality and strength.