PHL developers tap retiree demand with golf, wellness estates

PROPERTY DEVELOPERS in the Philippines are integrating wellness features and golf courses into estate developments to capture demand from the growing retirement market.

Ayala Land Hospitality, which manages a portfolio of 4,000 rooms across its homegrown and luxury brands, aims to attract retirees by incorporating wellness across its leisure estates.

“We’re actually looking into that… we’re exploring assisted living, [and] all that comes with kind of our new outlook on wellness,” Ayala Land Hospitality Creative Director Paloma Urquijo Zobel de Ayala said on the sidelines of a forum hosted by the Philippine Hotel Owners Association, Inc. last week.

For its part, Filinvest Hospitality Corp. (FHC) is looking to attract the retirement market through its golf-integrated developments.

“In Mimosa, we have our Golf Ridge Estates, which is a condominium development that’s focused on the golf kind of lifestyle,” FHC Senior Vice-President Francis Nathaniel C. Gotianun said on the sidelines of the same forum.

“So, we have these kinds of leisure products that are trying to attract retirees.”

FHC manages seven hotels under brands such as Crimson, Quest, and Timberland Highlands.

Likewise, Filinvest Mimosa Plus Leisure City in Clark, Pampanga, houses two 18-hole golf courses managed by FHC.

The retirement market, which is composed mainly of former Filipino citizens and foreigners looking to settle in the Philippines, presents opportunities in the country’s residential and hospitality sectors, said David Leechiu, founder and chief executive officer of Leechiu Property Consultants, Inc. (LPC).

“The economic drivers for the retirement market are so compelling — we’ve been talking about it for 30 years,” Mr. Leechiu said in a separate briefing earlier this month.

“But why aren’t they coming? Because they are not convinced that we are ready to take them on,” he said.

As an example, he said golf courses are an effective way to “attract them [retirees] to come to the Philippines and [stay] until they are comfortable to live here.”

Mr. Leechiu also cited the need to improve the country’s infrastructure, security, and connectivity to encourage more retirees to invest and settle in the country.

About 3,812 foreigners are enrolled under the Special Resident Retiree’s Visa (SRRV), a non-immigrant visa that grants former Filipinos and foreigners aged 50 and above multiple-entry and indefinite stay privileges in the Philippines.

Data from the Philippine Retirement Authority also showed that the top SRRV applicants are Chinese, followed by Americans, Indians, and Koreans. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz