This year, Manny Villar did an extraordinary thing.
He repurposed his flagship Vista Land and Lifescapes property company and made a strategic shift, away from socialize housing, of which he has built more than 500,000 units, into what he calls estates.
Villar will now go head-to-head and toe-to-toe against the biggest and oldest companies in the business, in the premium and upscale segment of the property market.
Manny was born in Manila’s Tondo poor man’s district and as a boy of six used to help his mother selling fish. He managed to earn a business degree from the state University of the Philippines in 1970 and an MBA in 1973. He took on odd jobs as an accountant, an analyst, gravel and sand delivery, before striking gold in mass housing.
The Manny Villar gravitas
Part of Manny Villar’s quiet charisma is a personality that is warm, engaging, and not at all intimidating, despite his formidable gravitas of power and wealth.
It helps that his pr is handled by one of the best in the business, Jan Mata, who is on first-name basis with and in the rolodex of influential and senior newsmen and editors.
Vista Estates
Vista Estates are Vista Land’s mixed-use development of prime masterplanned communities to provide life and lifestyle to the middle and upper income classes.
“Our mission is to uplift the lives of Filipinos by building unique, premium, sustainable, and amazing lifescapes that provide them with limitless growth opportunities,” gushes the website of Vista Estates. “We build modern-day cities that are inspiring in vision, compelling in creativity, and grand in diversity. Days in Vista Estates can be all business, all fun and relaxation, and all points in between.”
