8990 Holdings continues disruptive innovationtimistic

8990 Holdings, the country’s No. 1 mass-housing developer, continues to carve an enviable niche in the housing industry even as it forges ahead with its disruptive innovation that has opened the eyes of big property players to the fact that the affordable-housing segment provides a sizeable contribution to the bottom line. 

And for 8990 Holdings President and CEO J. J. Atencio, the company will continue to plod on in its thrust of providing housing for the Filipino people, which the company has defined as its purpose, while coming up with disruptive moves that have caught the eye of market strategists who see how the company has continued to level up its already top-notch play.

In a media briefing at the Philippine Stock Exchange Brokers Lounge last week, market guru Tony Herbosa of Traders Apprentice Pilipinas, who attended the affair, talked of how he is amazed at how JJ comes up with instantaneous business decisions on sight, a gift, he said, he has seen in other business personalities who have shown remarkable success in their business pursuits.

This is why Herbosa believes 8990 Holdings is primed to continue to lord it over in the affordable-housing segment even with the entry of other big players in the industry. For 8990 Holdings continues to blaze new trails in its business model.

Imagine how 8990 Holdings rose to become the top mass-housing developer in just 12 years: It started first in the provinces, disrupting the industry by way of offering low down payment of just 2 percent; it created value for its buyers with additional facilities like wake-boarding facilities; and most of all it tutored the buyers on financial literacy, a program for the buyers to discern what is essential and non-essential in their expenditures so that they can continue paying their monthly amortizations.

Thus, the company is poised to grow its profits this year, especially with its acquisition of close to 500 hectares of land bank that is seen to deliver revenues of 100,000 units worth more than P100 billion. The company reported earnings last year of P4.05 billion, which exceeded its profit guidance of P4 billion . This is higher by 23 percent from its net profits last year.

This year, though, provides another disruptive innovation for 8990, with its market-moving play in Vitas, Tondo. Here, one sees how the company looked at this place from a different perspective. Where other businesses saw the shanties that crowd the fringes, 8990 Holdings saw the opportunity of providing housing for the poor.

Last month, the company broke ground for a planned 13-tower high-rise residential complex with a shopping mall that is seen to carve a new township project in the area. This P8.3-billion township project is expected solve the problem of affordable condominium in this dense part of the metropolis.

Dubbed 8990 Deca Homes Manila, the project wil churn out 13,212 affordable residential units plus a full-service two-story mall tentatively called the DECAmall in this 8.4-hectare complex in Vitas, Tondo.

Explaining the company’s move in the area, Atencio said that, “we noticed that this side of Tondo —the Vitas area—is probably the most dense area in the Philippines, and yet there is a lack of two things: high-density affordable condominium living spaces for ordinary working-class Filipinos and a good mall as its major amenity. We have identified a need and we hope our product can fill that need.”

Aside from its township project in Vitas, Tondo, the company is also building another big township project on Ortigas Avenue Extension in Pasig City. It will have 26 buildings that would have 24,720 housing units. Aside from residential buildings and a shopping mall, the Ortigas development project will also have two business process outsourcing (BPO)- oriented towers.

The company is poised to post ever higher earnings in the years to come simply because it has a noble objective: that of providing housing to the poor. In so doing, its DNA has been attuned to enabling its house buyers to keep up with their monthly amortizations.

Atencio explained it well during a guesting at the Samahang Plaridel Kapihan sa Manila Hotel media forum when he said the company attempts behavior modification among its buyers by way of looking at their housing expenditures.

“ When we find out that a house buyer goes for high-end coffee every day, we tell him why not limit that to , say, just twice a week and in the process save the money for the three days he misses so that he could meet his monthly amortizations.” That, in essence, is why 8990 Holdings is so successful in its business: its clients‘ interests remain paramount in the company DNA for which reason it continues to soar high in the industry.