Manila's global luxury residences rank high

Manila has logged the fastest-growing price in the luxury residential market across the world, real estate consultancy firm Santos Knight Frank (SKF) said.

In a press conference in Makati City SKF said the price growth of Manila's prime residences was recorded at 21.2 percent over the past 12 months and at 19 percent in the last six months, based on the Knight Frank's Prime Global Cities Index.

Upward change in prices in Manila's luxury residences surpassed Dubai, with a 12-month growth of 15.9 percent; Shanghai at 10.4 percent; Mumbai at 6.5 percent; Madrid at 5.5 percent; Stockholm at 4.7 percent; Seoul at 4.5 percent; Sydney at 4.2 percent; and Nairobi and Delhi, both at 4.1 percent.

For the six-month growth, Seoul followed Manila, with a growth of 15.6 percent, then Dubai at 12.3 percent.

"The luxury residential space is one of several sectors where we're seeing encouraging market activity. Pent-up demand for prime properties, the return of the residential leasing market and the tight supply of developments have contributed to significant price appreciation, especially in central business districts," Rick Santos, SKF chairman and chief executive officer, said.

The real estate consultancy firm has also seen that the momentum of the Philippine property market has continued after the coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

In terms of office occupancy rate, Metro Manila logged an average occupancy rate of 80 percent in the past three quarters, above the all-time low occupancy rate of 75 percent.

The lowest vacancy rate is in the Fort Bonifacio area at 11 percent, followed by Makati at 20 percent and Quezon City at 22 percent during the third quarter of 2023.

Fort Bonifacio and Makati continue to lead the lease rate in the National Capital Region at P1,214.32 and P1,163.28 per square meter per month.

"The office market has continued its road to recovery post-Covid. The increased demand from conventional office tenants and flexible office operators has significantly contributed to the upswing in commercial leasing requirements. We are expecting this momentum to continue in 2024," Santos said.

"Strong investor confidence in the Philippines during the current Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. administration has buoyed the real estate market despite rising interest rates," the SKF chief added.

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Source: Manila Times

Construction sector's contribution cited

Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual underscored the construction industry's significant contribution to the country's economic growth.

In a statement on Thursday, Pascual said that the construction industry is still one of the drivers of the country's gross domestic product, with a 14-percent growth rate during the third quarter of the year.

"Notably, achieving a 14-percent growth rate in the industry during the third quarter is a commendable feat, particularly in light of our ongoing recovery from the economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic," he said in a speech during the 43rd Anniversary of the Department of Trade and Industry-Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (DTI-CIAP) on November 24.

Pascual also committed to support the industry's policy reforms, aimed at addressing challenges and facilitating the industry's sustainable adaptation of global innovations necessary for the country's construction industry growth.

He also took this moment to also commend the DTI-CIAP for its initiatives to strengthen and improve the industry, and urged its members to continue their programs and initiatives, especially in steering the industry toward a technology-driven economic landscape and to facilitate the integration of it to the global value chain.

"We can contribute further to Philippine economic development through a whole-of-government approach as we work toward a resilient and inclusive construction industry," he said.

Earlier this month, DTI-CIAP vowed to adopt modern technologies to improve competitiveness and effectively establish strategic measures in constructing better and sustainable infrastructure in the Philippines and keep up with the rest of the world.

"This is necessary to improve competitiveness and effectively establish strategic measures in constructing better and sustainable infrastructure in the Philippines," it said.

Source: Maniloa Times

From Filthy Streets to the First Flush: A Brief History of Toilets

November 19: World Toilet Day

The humble toilet is an invention several millennia in the making. In ancient Egypt some 5,000 years ago, for example, rudimentary indoor toilet facilities were made available to citizens. Then the world’s first public sewage system appeared around 2,500 years ago in the ancient Pakistani city of Mohenjo-daro. But it wasn’t until 1449 that England’s first flushing toilet was installed.

Over the years, people have apparently done some of their best thinking while answering the call of nature. Martin Luther, the 16th-century father of the Protestant Reformation, once wrote that he had been on the toilet when the idea of ‘salvation by faith alone’ came to him. Whether it’s complex metaphysical dilemmas or scrolling social media, what we think about while we go is probably not the origins of the device we are sitting on.

So, here is a potted history of an essential convenience.

Ancient facilities

Around 5,000 years ago, ancient Egypt was already using toilet facilities to differentiate between the wealthy and the poor. Indoor toilets with limestone tops which sat over a pit of sand were a sign of high status. Poorer Egyptians used a wooden stool with a hole cut in the top. The oldest known example of a sewage system is believed to be the one found at the city of Mohenjo-daro (Mound of the Dead Men) in Pakistan. Around 2500 BC, Mohenjo-daro had brick toilets over a sewage system that took waste away to a cesspit outside the city. The drains were brick-lined, and archaeologists have even suggested there were sets of public toilets there. The city was destroyed suddenly around 1700 BC, and its innovations lost.

A row of ancient communal toilets in Ostia, Rome Image Credit: Fubar Obfusco via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

On the island of Crete, Minoans had toilets that used water to wash away waste, and in the 9th century BC, the Roman Empire began to develop both public toilets and sewer systems, spreading them across the empire. There were communal toilets, with a dozen or more holes in benches, where officials might conduct their business as they, well, conducted their business. There was still no such thing as toilet paper for the Romans though. They used a xylospongium, a sponge on the end of a stick that was rinsed and reused. Yuck. Medieval conveniences

Perhaps the most famous medieval toilet is the garderobe that can be seen in castles. Garderobes are so named because they were originally also used to store clothes and linen, since the ammonia helped to keep moths and pests away. Usually a narrow space built to jut into the outer wall of the castle, it was covered by a wooden plank with a circular hole cut into it (which might lead to embarrassing splinters).

The waste dropped down the wall, or into a moat, or to a purpose-dug hole beneath that was emptied regularly by the gong farmers, also known as the nightmen (which sounds like a band of vigilante heroes, but was far less exciting). The gong farmer was responsible for digging out and taking away the waste that gathered in cesspits in towns, cities and castles. Porchester Castle has garderobes built out over the sea so that the tide acted as a huge, natural flushing system.

A garderobe chute in the exterior wall of Peveril Castle, Derbyshire Image Credit: By Dave.Dunford - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Jalo using CommonsHelper., Public Domain

You might think these would be an unappealing method of entry into a castle, but for a strong-stomached attacker, they were a weak point. At Château Gaillard on the Norman border in 1204, the castle was breached by French soldiers who climbed up through garderobes. Guildford Castle was equipped with metal grates over the chutes later that century, perhaps in response to the events at Château Gaillard. Whittington’s Longhouse

Although they were not new, public toilets became increasingly important as populations grew, particularly in large cities. Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London and inspiration behind the pantomime story of Dick Whittington and his cat, wasn’t concerned in real life with London’s streets being paved with gold, but something else.

Whittington paid (either during his lifetime or by bequest in his will) for the creation of Whittington’s Longhouse, the first public toilet in London with separate provision for men and women, which opened on 1 May 1421. An almshouse was also founded, and Whittington was concerned to improve access to clean water in the city too. The Longhouse (which became a byword for the toilet) had 128 seats, half for men and half for women. It was located on Walbrook Street, which then had a brook that took the waste to a gully at the edge of the Thames where the tide washed it away twice a day. The Longhouse was still in use when the Great Fire of London destroyed it, though a new building was put in its place which remained in use until the early 20th century. The Great Stink

Problems with sanitation continued. The first flush toilet in England seems to have been installed by Thomas Brightfield in 1449. It consisted of a stone privy with a cistern fed by rainwater, and an overflow pipe.

The first detailed plan of a flushing toilet appeared in John Harrington’s 1596 Metamorphosis of Ajax. It was similar to Brightfield’s design, with a handle that could be turned to wash away the waste with water from a cistern. Harrington installed one for Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, but the lack of a sewer network to complement the device meant it remained a novelty.

Problems with a lack of facilities continued for centuries. Even in royal circles, things were problematic. In Versailles Palace, for example, there were not enough toilets and courtiers would do their business in corridors and corners of rooms. Charles II’s court was renowned for leaving mess behind wherever they stayed: in corners, chimneys, coalhouses and cellars. In 1851, the Great Exhibition in London saw the first public flushing toilets that required a fee. Over 650,000 literally spent a penny during the exhibition, for which you could use the facilities, a towel, a comb and even get a shoe shine. Presumably not all at the same time.

Death rows the Thames claiming the lives of those who refuse to pay to clean up the river Image Credit: Punch Magazine, City and Water Blog via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

The most famous event that led to a wholesale overhaul of London’s sewer system and toilet facilities was the ‘Great Stink’ of summer 1858. The hot weather and vast amounts of human waste clogging the Thames created a foul smell and serious health fears.

When MPs almost abandoned Westminster, the government decided to act and added 1,100 miles (1,800km) of additional brick-lined sewers to increase the city’s capacity to deal with the waste it generated. For the most part, outside toilets remained the norm for a long time, and only in the second half of the 20th century did most houses begin to have inside toilets. So, next time you’re spending a penny and thinking, consider how the thing beneath you arrived there through the long, smelly history of the toilet.

Source: History Hit