Vista Residences: Condo Living is the Way to Go

A cursory trip to Metro Manila will reveal a curious phenomenon: the frenetic, unstoppable construction of high-rise residences. From mid-rise to towering structures, helmed by novice developers or established real estate players, they are transforming not only the urban fabric and the skyline but also the way people live, how they interact with each other, and their relationship with the city and its myriad opportunities.

“Metro Manila is a prime mega-city that is ripe and ready for high-rise developments,” says Emma Amores, Corporate Communications Head “With over 15 million people calling the metropolis home, it’s inevitable that there will be scarcity of land on which to build. The fact that that it has the country’s most expensive real estate in square meters makes building and buying a home more challenging.”

No wonder that more and more people are embracing condo living. The 21st century will be marked with condominium projects, just like how subdivisions and villages defined the late 20th century. Though there will still be a segment of the home-buying market that will prefer horizontal developments, signs are pointing toward more and more people preferring to live vertically. Here are some of their compelling reasons:

Safe and Stylish Homes for Students

For our parents and their parents, accommodation near the university meant a dormitory, a building with its warren of rooms where they had to live with strangers and share the kitchen, dining area and bathroom with them. Because of cramped living conditions, little or no privacy was maintained. A modicum of security was offered by a guard; a round-the-clock CCTV surveillance was rare if not downright non-existent.

Students of today have far better choices and more flexibility in choosing their second home as they embark on their university life. Vista Residences, a company under Vista Land & Lifescapes which has been providing quality homes for the Filipino family since 1977, positions itself as the foremost real estate developer that caters to the student market. Currently, it is building three projects near the top universities in the country: 878 España (University of Santo Tomas), Vista Residences Taft (De La Salle University) and Vista Residences Katipunan (Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines).

Your Own Property: Vista Residences - Homes that Stand Out

A home has long been considered a social marker, signifying both the achievement and aspiration of its owner. It exemplifies his taste, style and the things that he considers important in his life. Its location, whether in a mid-range subdivision or an exclusive village, also shapes on how we view—and value—the home.

Now, as more and more people choose to live in high-rise residences, we now judge a unit on its developer, the actual structure and its location. These three things also help inform the prospective unit owner on his selection. More often than not, these things seldom intersect. A well-known developer, for instance, may not always produce an eye-catching project or perhaps the structure, designed by an award-winning architect, suffers from a not-so-good location.

Your Own Property: Vista Residences - Structures of Style and Substance

As the condominium boom shows no sign of abating, an alarming trend is becoming noticeable: some of the high-rise towers being built are starting to look the same. Perhaps, the real estate company has either consciously chosen to only have one look across their developments or they tap the same architectural group, whether in-house or not. The downside to this practice is that the buildings become boring and interchangeable, pulling no element of surprise. You see one and you see all.

For Vista Residences, part of Vista Land & Lifescapes which is acknowledged as the biggest homebuilder in the country, part of the solution to break this monotony is to collaborate with a variety of architectural firms who have produced beautiful, breathtaking structures in the past. “We don’t subscribe to one specific look when it comes to our buildings,” says Beth Kalaw, Vista Residences HRB Division Head. “We avoid that by working with architects who have different design philosophy. We allow them to express their strengths. This is the reason why we don’t have developments that look exactly the same.”