Property giant Megaworld is looking into further expanding its development portfolio in the provinces in the next ten years as opportunities for economic growth look brighter and bigger outside of Metro Manila.

In the next 10 years, the Philippines’s largest developer of integrated urban townships and the biggest lessor of office spaces, will spend around P180-billion to develop its provincial townships alone, particularly those that have been already launched this year. These townships include Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City; The Mactan Newtown, in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu; Davao Park District in Lanang, Davao City; Northill Gateway in Talisay City, Negros Occidental; The Upper East in Bacolod City; The Capital in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga; Twin Lakes in Alfonso, Batangas near Tagaytay; Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna; Suntrust Ecotown in Tanza, Cavite; Sta. Barbara Heights in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo; Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island; and Maple Grove in General Trias, Cavite.

“We have remained to be a strong real estate developer in Metro Manila during the past 27 years. Now, we are further spreading our nation-building efforts, particularly in developing idle lands into bustling business and lifestyle districts, to the key cities and towns across the country where economic opportunities abound,” says Kingson Sian, executive director, Megaworld.

To date, Megaworld has launched 21 integrated urban townships across the country covering around 3,061 hectares in land area. Twelve of them, or more than half, are in the provinces covering around 2,807 hectares while the remaining nine are in Metro Manila covering 254 hectares.

Out of the twelve provincial townships, seven are already partially operational while the remaining four, namely Northill Gateway, The Upper East, The Capital and Maple Grove, are lined up for development within the next three years.

“Those partially operational are the townships that have opened some of its components while some of the residential, office, commercial, institutional and leisure components are still under constriction. Maturity of townships usually take 10 to 15 years, depending on the size and components,” explains Sian.

Eight of the company’s ’10 biggest townships’ are in the provinces, with Alabang West and McKinley Hill as the only two Metro Manila townships in the list.*

Megaworld revealed that each township would have a unique character and identity that usually blend with the local culture and lifestyle.

The company, led by tycoon Dr. Andrew L. Tan, secured its mark in the real estate industry by acquiring land in mostly prime areas around the Philippines during the past two decades. The result of Megaworld’s sound land banking is its current footprint of over 4,000 hectares throughout strategic areas in the main regions of the country.

“So far, we have utilized a little over 3,000 hectares of our land bank for our township developments. This means, we still have around 1,000 hectares of land to develop and we are excited to do that in the years to come,” says Sian.