PASKORELA: Cagayan de Oro’s One-of-a-kind Christmas Celebration

For Filipinos, Christmas is the happiest time of the year. Different kinds of celebrations take place across the country, ranging from the traditional to the new. This includes endless Christmas bazaars, parol festivals, Christmas tree contests, and various other creative concepts. This year, however, Cagayan de Oro City, the country’s 2nd most competitive city this 2014, amps up the Christmas festivities with the first ever PASKORELA event.

The motorela is Cagayan de Oro’s own version of the Filipino tricycle. Much like the jeepney, another filipino invention, motorela is quite a common sight in the city streets of CdO and is a regular mode of transportation for Kagay-anon commuters.

As part of the this year’s Christmas celebration, CdO stages the first ever PASKORELA Dress-up Your Motorela contest last December 20, 2014. The contest was initiated by the Pasko de Oro committee in partnership with the CDO Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office and the City Tourism Council.

Here are some event photos courtesy of the Cagayan de Oro City Info Network Facebook page. All photos are taken by Mr. Abel Matthew Silawan with Ms. Hershey Pabillore of Lourdes College.

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Need a place to stay while visiting Cagayan de Oro for the holidays? Primavera Residences offers units for sale and for rent in the city’s best location, overlooking the bustling downtown area and the breathtaking Macajalar Bay.  For more information, visit www.primaveraresidences.com.

 

 

 

 

5 Ways Young Filipinos Will Shape the Real Estate Industry

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For many years, Filipino millennials—individuals aged between 20 and 34 years—have been under the radar of many brands and marketers. They are even considered a hard sell—well informed yet seen as having little spending power. They have been labeled tech-savvy yet narcissistic, liberal yet lazy, and many are even seen as perpetually holed up in their parents’ homes, saving on rent and unwilling to move out.

However, the days when millennials are perceived as such are quickly coming to an end. Recent research is showing that millennials will soon comprise a demographic that will shape the Philippines’ economic future, and that of its real estate industry.

With this new interest for millennial home-buyers, leading property platform Lamudi Philippines lists five ways millennials will shape the Philippines’ real estate sector and how the industry can effectively tap into them.

 

  1. Their Number and Spending Power is Growing

Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) show that Filipino millennials now number approximately 27 million, more than a quarter of the country’s total population and more than 50 percent of its workers, making them a key demographic with a potentially high spending power.

In fact, having a sizable disposable income places millennials in a good position to purchase the latest gadgets. Global marketing firm Publicis Manila dubbed this spending behavior “I want ergo I need.”

Despite their limited employment experience and training, Filipino millennial employees tend to be favored over their older counterparts because of their lower demands and flexible working habits, according to Publicis. This increases the sheer number of employed young people in the Philippines.

 

  1. They are Tech-Savvy

Filipino millennials also now comprise more than 70 percent of Internet users in the Philippines, according to estimates from comScore. Their income also allows them to subscribe to the best Internet connections, making them the prime customers of e-commerce sites that peddle everything from shoes and airline tickets to housing loans and insurance.

 

  1. People in This Age Bracket are Now Getting Married

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Although the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has noted that the number of Filipino couples getting married declined by 1.5 percent between 2001 and 2010, a great number of marriages still take place in the Philippines—476,408 registered in 2011. The average ages of brides and grooms are also increasing: 26.1 and 29.1, respectively, in 2010.

But a more intriguing statistic is how Filipino couples are opting to tie the knot. According to the NSCB, almost 44 percent of couples are choosing civil wedding rites compared to 35 percent who are opting church weddings. The latter is almost always costly, which suggests that young Filipinos’ spending patterns and priorities are shifting.

 

  1. Filipino Millennials are not Burdened by Student Debt

Although average income in the Philippines is lower compared to the developed world, recent college graduates entering the workforce are not burdened by student-loan debts. This is thanks to Filipino parents’ strong emphasis on the value of education. While the Philippine government does not provide free tertiary education (save for a few state universities), parents fully shoulder their children’s college education. This allows Filipino millennials to start working virtually debt-free, increasing their spending power and savings rate.

 

  1. Filipino Millennials are Happy

Perhaps the most important trait of Filipino millennials is their positive outlook. A 2013 study conducted by media giant Viacom places Filipino millennials’ happiness level at 83 percent, the highest in all countries surveyed. They also tend to always look at the bright side—although half of them see job security as a challenge, almost 80 percent of them would take a minimum-wage job rather than not to have any job at all.

 

In order to cope, Filipino millennials thrive on interpersonal contact with family and friends as a driving force to their stress-free lives, according to the study.

Article source: Lamudi PR

All photos courtesy of XU MRKMN 61 students

Lamudi is the Philippines’ fastest-growing online property portal and is currently available in 28 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with more than 500,000 real estate listings across its global network. Primavera Residences, the first multi-awarded eco-friendly property in Cagayan de Oro, is one of the properties presently listed in Lamudi.

To know more about Primavera Residences, visit www.primaveraresidences.com or visit the listings on Lamudi.com.ph here.