While CoVid-19 is considered finished in some parts of the world, we cannot deny the fact that its presence is still very much felt globally. The economic activities worldwide across all industries are still at a minimum and sadly, it has negatively impacted businesses in terms of reducing sales, increasing costs, mobilization and even labor-related challenges such as remuneration and retrenchment.
These negative impacts are also much felt by real estate companies in so many ways. Pre pandemic, my family has a prime piece of land located in the heart of Metro Manila and through our family savings, decided to build and sell. We were halfway through the construction of a 4-storey Condominium building with 24 units in the said land when CoVid-19 struck us in March 2020. Construction was put on hold until the early months of 2021. When we got back it was more challenging because so many things have to be considered: keeping the workers safe not just form risks at work, but also from CoVid-19, reducing the number of workers, which delayed the project more, practicing safe health protocols, increased cleaning measures, complying with governmental agency requirements, etc. We were 70 percent done with the building when we realized we are running short of funds because our other businesses where we get the funds for the construction were not earning much, again because of the pandemic.
It was for this reason that we considered getting a loan form either the bank or a financial company in order for us to finish the project. This wasn't an easy path though, because as everyone was affected by the pandemic, banks and financial institutions are stricter than before. It's like going through an eye of the needle to get approved which took about a couple of weeks. I think they are using an estimating affordability app to help them determine whether a person or company is qualified to obtain a loan and to make the credit investigations faster. Doing a research on the requirements and using a mortgage calculator also helped and gave me an idea on how this thing works as this was the first time that we obtained a loan from a financial institution.
We are now in the last quarter of 2022 and I can say that we are 90 percent done with the project. Although CoVid-19 is still here and we are currently at a moderate risk, I am positive that this will improve in the next months and businesses will start to recover.
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