HONG KONG: A Philippine developer is targeting Hongkongers with an upmarket Versace-branded residential project in Makati City in the heart of Manila's financial district and shopping mecca.

Robbie Antonio, managing director of Century Properties, believes the famous brand will attract Hong Kong buyers to the Milano Residences project.

Antonio said the company had collaborated with the interior designers of Versace Homes to design the public spaces of the property. "The result will be on show in the interior design of the grand lobby, hallways, lounge, library, pool garden and spa."

The property will be the first designed by the Versace Group to go on sale in Southeast Asia, according to Antonio.

The 53-floor project is slated for completion in 2015. It is expected to comprise 340 flats ranging in size from 50 square metres to 300 square metres and with one to three bedrooms.

Sales are expected to be launched in Hong Kong this month. The average selling price is likely to be 140,000 pesos (RM9,792.42) per square metre.

The project was recently launched in Singapore, where around 30 flats were sold.

Antonio doubted the killing of eight Hongkongers taken hostage aboard a bus in Manila in August would dampen investor interest. The incident, in which seven tourists and a guide were killed by a former policeman, raised concerns at the time about safety in the Philippines, but Antonio said he believed those concerns had abated and that the Versace name would draw buyers.

Century Properties is the largest privately owned real estate firm in the Philippines. Total investment in the project is over three billion pesos.

The Philippine housing market is picking up thanks to a strong economic recovery and a wave of optimism, one property consultant said. Average prices for luxury three-bedroom condominiums in Makati rose 1.5% quarter on quarter to 101,600 pesos per square metre in the third quarter of last year, the second quarterly increase after a 0.9% increase in the second quarter, according to Colliers International.

Average prices were up by 1.9% from a year earlier in nominal terms, but down by 1.8% when adjusted for inflation. The Philippine economy expanded by 7.3% last year. — SCMP

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