CEBU CITY – The next three years will be “very rosy” for those in the real estate industry.

Players in the real estate industry shared this outlook during the first-ever Real Estate Salespersons Congress

organized by the Accredited Real Estate Salespersons in the Philippines (ACRES Philippines) Thursday, Aug. 25, at Radisson Blu here.

Chris Malazarte, president of ACRES-Cebu South, said the industry was fortunate to have not been seriously affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the redeployment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will further give the industry a boost.

“Personally, I would like to say that we are up for better times ahead because we are seeing a recovery already. The recovery has already started sometime in 2021 and I am very, very happy to say that despite what has happened from 2020, the growth of the real estate did not really get into the dumps, we did not have any nose dive or anything,” Malazarte said in a press briefing prior to the start of the convention.

The convention was attended by some 700 members of ACRES and other Professional Regulation Commission-registered salespersons.

Malazarte said OFWs are the biggest contributor to the rise of real estate industry as “they are always in the look, not only for residential housing, but also as well for investments.”

“We would like to take advantage of the market sentiment which is very positive. Our outlook for the next two to three years is going to be very rosy,” said Malazarte.

Alejandro Mañalac, chairman and co-founder of the Manila-based Havitas Development Corp., said the reopening of the economy will give the industry a major boost.

Mañalac said OFW deployment dropped by 75 percent in 2020 but the remittances in December of that year only dropped by 0.8 percent.

In 2021, OFW remittances increased by 5.9 percent, Mañalac shared.

Anthony Gerard Leuterio, president of A Better Real Estate Philippines, also shared positive outlook in the real estate business in the country, citing a backlog of 6.5 million homes in the Philippines.

“The bounce back is coming in the next six months to one year. That is where ACRES will come in and really create more opportunities for people to become sales people,” Leuterio said.

Mañalac, Leuterio, and Malazarte welcomed the holding of the convention.

Malazarte said the convention was meant to find measures to make the profession more credible and give equal opportunity in terms of policy.

“We are currently disjointed. There seems to be a lack of recognition,” Malazarte said.

The group pushed for a review of the 14-year-old Real Estate Service Act or the Resa Law.

Leuterio said real estate industry players should have a voice especially in policy-making.

“Real estate is a sunshine industry but nobody is taking care of the industry,” said Leuterio.