Robinsons opens up Manila Bay project to Airbnb, HomeAway
By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
ROBINSONS LAND Corp. (RLC) is opening up one of its residential developments in the Bay Area to home-sharing online apps, seeking to capture the rising tourist market in the area.
The listed property developer said the second tower of The Radiance Manila Bay, located along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City, will now be up for lease through online apps like Airbnb, HomeAway, Roomorama, and Tripping.com.
“The Radiance Manila Bay aims to put Metropolitan Manila right in the heart of the shared vacation homes market by developing well-suited accommodations at the world’s most celebrated travel destinations. This offers better investment potentials and more convenient leasing opportunities through connections with globally recognized home-share online apps,” the company said.
RLC noted that The Radiance Manila Bay is among the “very few legally approved properties” to offer this opportunity.
In the Philippines, online hospitality services provider Airbnb currently has a network of around 32,000 homes located in Makati City, Cebu, Palawan and Boracay. Online market research portal Statista.com projects that vacation rental revenues derived from apps like Airbnb and HomeAway are expected to grow at annual rate of 21% from 2018 to 2022 in the country alone.
Since the towers will be opened up to the home-sharing apps, RLC said it will optimize the building’s security and implement segregation for building and amenity use. This will ensure that the units to be leased out for the short term will maintained properly.
The company will be providing keycard access to selected common areas and limited access for leased property occupants. Guests staying overnight will be allowed to use the outdoor podium amenities, including a 50-meter lap pool, children’s play area, meditation garden, and garden walk.
On the other hand, RLC said private owners will continue to live in a low-density environment since there are only a maximum of 20 units per floor at the South Tower. The company also cited the four dedicated towers present in each building, for the convenience of both private owners and visiting guests.
“The Radiance Manila Bay South Tower’s new feature of short-term leasing through online apps allows for better investment opportunities in the fast growing global home-share market, while encouraging more room for development in Manila’s tourism and hospitality industries by setting the standards for safer, more sustainable shared-use properties in the metropolis,” RLC said.
The Radiance Manila Bay offers a total of 1,068 residential units across 30 floors, with additional four storeys for podium parking and three floors for retail spaces. The entire project sits on a total land area of 8,629 square meters.
Launched in 2013, RLC said the North tower of the project is almost sold out, while the South Tower is also seeing strong sales.
The Gokongwei-led firm generated a 12% increase in net income to P1.55 billion in the first three months of the year, following a 17% climb in revenues to P6.36 billion during the period.
