Demand from offshore gaming operators and from local professionals is seen driving sustained growth this year in Manila’s residential market, including such brands as Primehomes, for instance.

This despite apprehension the residential market may have overreached itself in 2018 with aggressive completion of new units the various developers could find increasingly difficult to market down the line.

But experts such as Santos Knight Frank is optimistic the local residential market should continue to grow like it did last year when the sector was forecast to have grown just under 7 percent, roughly the same speed as local output growth or the gross domestic product.

Other market watchers such as Colliers believe the residential segment of the market should remain expansive this year as it did in 2018 when it forecast sustained demand for residential units in and around Metro Manila.

Primehomes, which first endeavored to address Metro Manila’s residential requirements less than a decade earlier, has since endeavored to meet this growing demand at the more prestigeous or top end of the business.

The property developer has put so much care and planning into its projects the online portals as Lamudi and Dot Property Philippines rewarded the business with citations as some of the best performing in 2018.

Primehomes and its flagship Larossa project, a multi-phase development seen completed this year, was recognized as Best Boutique Developer for Luzon.

The Larossa project was cited for the architectural aesthtics achieved at its Camia, Sampaguita and Magnolia property development programs even as these endeavored to pay tribute to nature.

The Larossa project has also been cited as Best Residential Botanical Development precisely for marrying its urban community development with conditions approximating nature.

It has been noted Primehomes’ development programs come at a time when the monetary authorities reject notions the economy is starting to overheat in the form of above-target inflation.

Deputy BSP Governor Diwa Guinigundo, who honored the award ceremonies with his presence, has since asserted the economy is far from hitting that point in which commodities prices push past targeted levels for so long it has the potential to unhinge continued economic growth.

By overheating is meant elevated and sustained above-target inflation, as had happened in recent months when headline inflation proved above the 4-percent ceiling in 2018 when it stood as high as 6.7 percent at one point.

Guinigundo was not alone in his optimismic view of the economy as a whole given that Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno similarly paid tribute to the real estate sector by acknowledging the industry as having contributed to overall economic expansion.

Diokno, at the award ceremonies, spoke of the real estate sector in general as one of the souces of continued economic expansion in the Philippines.