I was at a children’s birthday party in Liloan, near Cebu City, in an area of low cost housing. The whole street came out to celebrate. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers. An old fashioned community gathering. The kind I remember from growing up in Kew.
This is the Philippines nobody talks about in an investment deck.
Not the Manila skyline story. Not the BPO offices or the OFW remittances. Something more fundamental.
A housing backlog of six to eight million homes. Heading to twenty two million by 2040. Not because people are poor. Because the right product at the right price has never existed at scale.
The demand is already there. Employed. Hard working. Living in conditions that don’t reflect their income, aspiration or ambition.
The smartest developers figured this out years ago. Pre-sell before you build. Meet genuine demand rather than create speculative supply. 90% pre-sales before a brick is laid.
This market doesn’t need to be sold. It just needs to be built.
Investors burned by Chinese or Vietnamese developers arrive with scar tissue. They see “affordable housing” and read “low end” or even “low quality”. They’re looking at it from the wrong angle.
The Philippines isn’t trying to be the next anything. It’s building something quieter, more durable, and almost entirely overlooked.
Asia rewards the ones who look twice.
PS – I’ve been watching this market for some time. If you’re curious about what’s being built here, let’s talk. www.linkedin.com/in/davidthomas-asia