Makati condo investment: the established CBD long-let.

Makati is the established central business district — the original Manila CBD, the embassy belt, the Ayala-corridor towers, and a deep mix of older and newer stock. The region-scout matrix places realised long-let occupancy in the mid eighties to low nineties against a stable, established tenant pool, with the appreciation projection in the Low-med band, roughly 3–6% annualised over a five-year forward horizon.

Makati is fully discovered. You are not finding a frontier growth curve here — little is mispriced, but little is a trap either. That maturity is the feature for the buyer who prioritises liquidity and a transparent comp set over upside. The older Legaspi and Salcedo Village stock can offer genuine value if the building is well managed. The buyer chasing yield maximisation is in the wrong submarket; the buyer who wants a liquid, well-understood long-let position is in the right one.

The projection band is an independent-research estimate, not a forecast and not a promise — independent sources project both higher and lower. Run the net-yield math on a multi-year lease before you assume the headline gross holds after the fee stack.

The matrix rates Makati’s complexity Med, and the reason is building age. Some Makati stock is twenty to thirty years old. That is not a defect — mature buildings can be excellent — but it changes the diligence. An aged tower can carry deferred maintenance and special-assessment risk that a glossy newer launch does not. The lowest asking price in a block is frequently the building that has been deferring its capital expenditure the longest.

So you pull the condominium corporation’s reserve-fund position and its recent special-assessment history before you buy. An old tower with a thin reserve fund is a series of future capital calls wearing a low asking price. The brochure quotes the per-square-metre discount; the Operator prices in the special assessment that arrives in year three.

This is building-level diligence, not a comment on the district. Where Makati’s risk is age and reserves, the BGC comparison shows the newer prime grid where the live constraint is cap pressure rather than building age.

The matrix rates Makati resale liquidity Strong — the second of the two deepest exit pools in the country alongside BGC. A perpetual CCT is only as useful as your ability to sell it onward, and Makati’s mature, transparent buyer base gives you that. The exit is decided at entry, and Makati is one of the two submarkets where the exit is least likely to test you.

The 40% foreign cap applies here exactly as it does everywhere — checked at registration against the whole project. Older Makati buildings vary widely in how much foreign headroom remains, so confirm the project’s current foreign-ownership percentage in writing, dated, before any reservation. And regardless of how reputable the seller looks, verify the CCT is clean and unencumbered at the Registry of Deeds. A title that does not check out at the registry is not your title.

The mechanics of the cap and the certificate sequence are walked in full at the 40% cap. None of this is a criticism of any seller or agent — it is the structure of buying a perpetual unit behind a project-level cap. Name the check, then run it.

1. Reserve fund and special-assessment history. Pull the condominium corporation’s reserve-fund position and recent special-assessment record, especially on older Legaspi and Salcedo stock. A low asking price on a thin-reserve tower is future capital calls wearing a discount.
2. Foreign-cap headroom, in writing. Confirm the project’s current foreign-ownership percentage and the room remaining under the 40% cap, dated, before any reservation. Older buildings vary widely on how much headroom is left.
3. Clean CCT at the Registry of Deeds. Verify the title is clean and unencumbered regardless of the seller’s reputation, and confirm a properly documented inbound path so sale proceeds can be moved out later.

A hypothetical worked example: a Makati two-bedroom in the region-scout indicative band sits around USD 300,000 — recompute against live listings and the live USD/PHP rate, and against the documentation you will need to repatriate proceeds later. The BGC read sets out the newer prime alternative.