Tycoon Hans Sy eyes upscale residential villages in Susana Heights; project near Ayala Alabang

Hans Sy 
SM Prime executive committee chair 

Sy-led SM Prime Holdings is readying bold plans for Southern Metro Manila with an ambitious project to redevelop and transform over 200 hectares of property around Susana Heights in Muntinlupa City.

This expansion push will see the real estate giant introduce its first-ever high-end housing communities near wealthy enclaves in the area, tycoon Hans Sy told InsiderPH.

“We will be doing horizontal projects in Susana Heights,” Sy, chair of SM Prime’s executive committee and board member, said in a recent interview.

SM goes upmarket

“Actually, [part of] our land is beside Ayala Alabang. But it will have its own access road,” Sy said referring to the Ayala Land development, where nine-figure properties are the norm since lot prices are about P200,000 per square meter.

“We have a whole team that’s doing [those plans] until the middle of this year,” he added.

Through SM Development Corp., the company launched its first horizontal development in Susana Heights nearly two decades ago, known as Lindenwood Residences.

Big picture

SM Prime’s parent company, SM Investments Corp., announced last year it will be taking direct control of a 261-hectare estate in Susana Heights, which was developed in the 1970s by the landed Madrigal clan.

SM Prime is also diversifying into more high-end offerings amid an oversupply in the mid-market housing segment in Metro Manila.

When asked about this, Sy said the strategy is being implemented due to opportunities presented by Susana Heights.

On top of this, it makes SM Prime more well-rounded in offering homes to different types of buyers.

“We just want to complete everything,” he said.

Joey Bondoc 
Colliers Philippines director for research

Property experts’ view

Colliers Philippines director for research Joey Bondoc said demand for high-end homes, where prices start above P12 million, has so far been shielded from the real estate slump in Metro Manila.

Data from the real estate services firm showed that 60 percent of unsold units were from the mid-market segment, where prices range from almost P4 million to P12 million. 

Meanwhile, excess inventory in upscale to luxury homes stood at about 5 percent.

Need for partners? 

“For this to be successful, [SM Prime] might want to partner with a brand known also for luxury developments,” said Bondoc, who cited firms such as the Lopez family’s Rockwell Land Corp. and Shang Properties.

He said this strategy worked well for the Bridgetown development in Pasig that was built by the Gokongwei family’s Robinsons Land Corp.  

“They partnered with HK Land and Shang and those projects are doing well,” Bondoc said.

Joey Cipres 
AP Securities research analyst 

SM Prime is a “Buy”

Joey Cipres, research analyst at AP Securities, said SM’s move is also in line with the growing demand in the southern part of Metro Manila and areas outside the capital region. 

“For Muntinlupa, Lamudi stated that the demand for upscale houses in Muntinlupa outweighed supply, and we think that this trend would continue in the following years despite the dimmer outlook for rate cuts this year as the affluent are not so sensitive to that metric,” he said.

AP Securities has a “buy” rating on SM Prime with a price target of P40.30 per share.

First Metro Securities also has a buy rating on SM Prime with a price target of P36 per share.

What’s next?

Sy said SM Prime could take about three to four years to transform Susana Heights.

He also hinted that the project could be extensive, given the existing developments in the area.

“There’s going to be big changes, we need to redo the whole area, even the road network,” Sy said.

About the author
Miguel R. Camus
Miguel R. Camus

Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.

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