It’s perhaps fitting that the most beautiful outcrop on the Tagaytay mountain ridge belongs to the heirs of the leader of the the Philippines’ 19th-century revolution against Spanish colonial rule. Emilio Aguinaldo and his fellow rebels used to pass along the heavily forested rim overlooking Lake Taal while on the run from civil guards in the late 1890s. Decades later his daughter was one of the first people to buy land and build a home there.
Tagaytay’s cool and foggy plateau, 600 metres above sea level, has long attracted people seeking sanctuary from the heat of Manila, the Filipino capital 50km to the north. The revolutionaries were followed by cattle rustlers fleeing from the long arm of the law [who were eventually driven out by industrialisation] then Catholic religious orders, which built seminaries and retreats for troubled souls, then tourists in search of a paradise escape.
Now the newcomers are Filipino and foreign housebuyers attracted by Tagaytay’s proximity to Manila, its natural beauty and temperatures that average 22.7°C.
These settlers are middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs whose work is either in the capital or in the special economic zones that dot the surrounding area. Others have made their fortunes overseas, especially in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
“Tagaytay is [already] a popular location for second homes,” says Tina Fernandez of Belle Corp, the developer behind the Tagatay Highlands Golf Club resort. “But it is rapidly developing into a primary-home market as well. With more roads connecting the city, it’s now just about possible for our homeowners to stay in the Highlands and make the daily drive to and from Manila.”
“Just” is probably the salient word, though. Until roads are improved, commuting is only for the hardy, involving a three-hour round trip. Most people living in Tagaytay either have jobs nearby or are retired.
Among them is Pie David, who recently left his position as art director of San Miguel Corp, the Philippines’ biggest food and drinks company. He and wife Rina, a newspaper columnist, built themselves a four-bedroom home featuring 180° views of the surrounding landscape and stained-glass doors and windows on a 600 sq metre lot in the town of Alfonso. “We wanted a retirement place and we wanted it in Tagaytay because of the weather,” David says.
“I wasn’t really thinking about retirement [but] then we came here one morning a few years ago [and] it was so cold,” Rina adds. “I imagined myself on the terrace, having coffee and doing some writing.”
Although the couple bought the land more than seven years ago for 3.5m pesos (£39,500), the opportunity to build came only when David accepted his generous retirement package this past January. The construction cost 4m pesos. “Pie now has to find another job because we used all his retirement money on the new house,” Rina laughs.
The demand for first and second homes from couples such as the Davids has transformed Tagaytay’s landscape. Until 12 years ago, nearly 60 per cent of its total 650,000 sq metres was farmland and only 16 per cent was built on. Now, agricultural land accounts for less than a fifth of the area while residential and commercial developments make up more than a third.
And the building boom continues. The number of residential communities planned by developers is rising fast – from only two in 2004 and four in 2005 to 13 in 2006, according to housing regulators. Applications for nine new projects were filed in the first half of 2007.
Tagaytay used to be considered a scaled-down version of Baguio, the hill station sitting 1,500 metres above sea level that was built by the Americans who ruled the Philippines from 1898 to 1946. Baguio’s temperatures range from 16°C-20°C but it takes six to seven hours to drive from Manila. Tagaytay did flourish as a day-trip destination from the capital but until recently only the extremely wealthy built holiday homes there. These were large mansions on huge tracts of land big enough to have a swimming pool, flower gardens and wide lawns for picnics and outdoor parties. In 1983 Imelda Marcos had a huge guesthouse, dubbed “the palace in the sky”, built for an impending visit by US president Ronald Reagan though he subsequently had to cancel.
Things changed in the mid-1990s when developers started to build championship golf courses surrounded by residential units in an attempt to attract corporate executives to the area. Belle Corp launched its Highlands club as the centerpiece of a series of leisure and residential communities planned for more than 1,000 hectares of land along pristine mountain slopes. It also built a gym and sports centre, walking routes and a luxury spa.
This proved to be an effective way to sell property and the homes – which ranged from condominiums to log cabins and US-style mansions – went fast. One- to three-bedroom units of 150-250 sq metres sold for 3m-6m pesos, while the log cabins, made from North American red cedar and built on 280-350 sq metre lots, were priced at around 18m pesos. Soon other developers followed suit and there are now close to a dozen golf courses in Tagaytay.
Mark Floro, a food photographer who helps his wife run Buon Giorno!, an Italian restaurant in Tagaytay City, says he was initially reluctant to buy a vacation home in the area but gave in to his wife’s wishes on condition that it was located near the greens. “I was a golf addict then,” he says.
The Floros’ home is a two-storey bungalow, with a big car port and separate quarters for a driver, who minds the house when the couple is away. They paid about 7m pesos for it and the 600 sq metre lot, parts of which are now planted with herbs and vegetables for the restaurant.
In spite of the construction boom, real estate prices in Tagaytay have remained relatively stable. There’s also a wide variety of building styles and price points to choose from, with the most expensive properties offering unobstructed views of the Taal volcano and lake. At the Highlands, new condos with 137-300 sq metres of space sell for 8m-20m pesos, while houses on 304 sq metres of land start at 11m pesos. Land along the ridge overlooking the volcano sells for up to 35,000 pesos per sq metre, dropping to as low as 5,000 pesos per square metre away from the rim. And much further down the slopes are ready-to-move-in homes on 300-415 sq metre lots with their own lawns, which sell for 11m-15m pesos. Built in clusters, they are painted in warm colours and have the air of rural US properties.
Tagaytay is now a focus for developers betting that the Philippines’ low cost of living and abundance of labour for care-giving and health services will appeal to retirees from outside the country. A group of local property owners hopes to build a “Japanese retirement village” on a 100-hectare plot in the area and local mayor Abraham Tolentino says he is in talks with a big Manila hospital to build an upmarket medical facility catering to foreigners. These projects will add to an already thriving “wellness” industry composed of spas, alternative healing and therapy centres, including the old Catholic retreats, which now offer courses on zen and New Age health remedies, and Sonya’s Garden, an organic vegetarian restaurant turned spa and bed and breakfast.
“Come back here in 10 to 15 years and you’ll see more people going around with their walkers,” Floro says, “including probably me.”
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Local agents
Tagaytay Highlands, tel: +632 2876885; www.tagaytayhighlands.com
Pearl Vasquez, tel: +632 5786748; orientpearl.sulit.com.ph
