Local construction industry players under the Paris-based International Real Estate Federation are geared to bounce back from the 24.2-percent drop in their first-quarter performance this year because of the pandemic.
Former FIABCI-Philippines chairman and now president Dr. Reghis Romero II said the organization’s members would gather in an international event in Manila in October this year to consult with each other on the matter.
“Culminating with FIABCI-Philippines’ Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards Night on Oct. 15, this [event] is an opportunity for the industry to regroup and find ways to bounce back from its first-quarter decline of negative 24.2 percent in the construction sector, and negative 13.2 percent in real estate and ownership of dwellings,” Romero said.
“The decline in our sector contributed to the negative 4.2 percent drop in the GDP in that period as reported by the PSA [Philippine Statistics Authority]. As such, the event can help bring about a unified response from the property and real estate sector to the challenges posed by the pandemic and its impact on the economy,” he said.
Up for grabs at the event are prestigious excellence awards in 16 categories to be conferred on the winners by FIABCI-Philippines.
Founded in 1951 in Paris, France, FIABCI has around 2,300 regular and a million associate members in 65 countries, including the Philippines, which holds the annual awards to keep raising the bar of excellence in all the 16 product categories of the property and real estate sector.
Highlighting the awards are the best practices, innovations and levels of economic and environmental impacts of the nominated projects.
“We are now meticulously evaluating the projects nominated for each of the 16 categories,” Romero said.
The 16 project categories are environmental (rehabilitation/conservation), heritage (restoration), master plan, hotel, convention, industrial, office, public infrastructure/amenities, high-rise and low-rise residential, resort, retail, rural, specialized and sustainable development.
“Winning an award in any of the 16 categories provide an indisputable proof of excellence based on peer review, or judgment of peers with vast international exposure to know which project or projects make a world of difference,” said architect Nestor Mangio, former president and now chairman of FIABCI-Philippines.
Constituting FIABCI are 44 national and multinational chapters, 87 professional associations and 13 public and 79 academic institutions.
“Thus, expected to join FIABCI-Philippines’ Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards Night on Oct. 15 are current and former FIABCI World officers, including our very own chairman emeritus Florentino Dulalia Jr., among many others,” Romero said.
Dulalia was FIABCI World president from June 2020 to May 2021. It was during his term that the FIABCI World Real Estate Congress was scheduled to be held in the Philippines for the first time on May 26 to 30 last year when the staging of the event itself was aborted altogether because of the breakout of the Covid pandemic.
“Nonetheless, Dulalia competently served his term despite the pandemic and went on to help lead in organizing this year’s Property and Real Estate Excellence Awards,” Romero said.