Property News · December 22, 2016

This could be the ‘Dubai of the Philippines’


500,000 jobs at stake
The famous Manila Bay sunset. Sphinx Wang/Shutterstock
After the “Singapore of the Philippines,” here comes the country’s version of Dubai.
Manila Goldcoast Development Corp (MGDC) is reclaiming three islands in Manila Bay to create Solar City, a 148-hectare mixed-use development that will run entirely on renewable energy.
The artificial islands will have an international cruise ship terminal as well as an artificial beach, among other proposed amenities. The development will offer a monorail system, precluding the need for traffic-congesting, carbon-emitting automobiles that have been a perennial problem for Metro Manila.
The development will reportedly generate 100,000 jobs during the construction phase and up to 500,000 upon completion.
More: How to own an island in the Philippines
The project presents a beguiling alternative to overseas Filipino workers in a ceaseless quest for higher-paying employment prospects in the Middle East. Dubai alone is home to 450,000 Filipinos.
Solar City is on tap to generate up to PHP10 billion (USD200 million) in real property taxes for the Philippine government. It is one of 80 reclamation projects that are reportedly being fast-tracked under President Rodrigo Duterte in several coastal cities, including the Mactan North Reclamation and Development project in Cebu and a 108-hectare venture in Bacolod City.
“There will be more,” Philippine Reclamation Authority chairman Alberto Agra said.
Solar City has been met with controversy since its conception in the early 1990s. Critics claim that the project flouts the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992, which forbids developments of such scale in the bay.
Read next: Why townships are the future of luxury living in the Philippines

Source : property-report.com
Read more…This could be the ‘Dubai of the Philippines’

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