Top Real Estate Agencies in Manila: A Complete Guide

Metro Manila is huge in terms of population and size, to many people’s surprise, Manila makes up a small part of this metropolitan area. With a rapidly growing economy, foreigners (especially Chinese investors) pour in to buy properties.

Here, you can find plenty of international and local real estate agencies who have a long experience of in helping foreigners. Yet, you rarely find summarized information about popular and credible agents in Manila.

In this article, I list some of the top real estate agencies that you can find in Metro Manila.

KMC MAG Group (KMC Savills, Inc.)

KMC MAG Group is one of the biggest real estate agencies in the Philippines, it’s not strange to understand why, as it’s an associate of Savills. Gregory Kittelson founded the company in 2009 and has been on the ground for more than a decade.

Michael McCullough acts as the Managing Director and has many years of experience in the real estate industry. He serves a number of multinational companies, for example, Huawei and E-Bay.

The company currently has around 100 employees and has won many awards since its inception, for example:

• 5-Star Best Real Estate Website in the Philippines – The 2014 International Property Awards
• 5-Star Best Real Estate Agency for Marketing in the Philippines – The 2016-2017 International Property Awards

Property types

The company manages both commercial and residential properties, including:

• Condos
• Apartments
• Villas
• Land
• Retail
• Offices

Services offered

The company offers a number of services, like:

• Consulting and research
• Asset management
• Residential services
• Hotels
• Serviced offices

Office address

11th Floor, Sun Life Centre, 5th Avenue corner Rizal Drive, Bonifacio Global City 1634, Philippines

Colliers International Philippines

Having over 15,000 employees in almost 400 offices globally, Colliers is one of the biggest real estate agencies in the world. The company was initially called Macaulay Nicolls Maitland but decided to merge with, at that time, Australia operated Colliers.

The company was founded by David A. Young who currently serves as the COO. He has decades of experience in real estate having worked in different countries. Richard Raymundo currently heads the company and is in charge of a number of multinational clients, like the United Nations (UN), Mitsui bank, and more.

Some notable awards won by the company include:

• Best Overall Advisor & Consultant Award in Philippines – Euromoney 2016
• Best Overall Advisor & Consultant Award in Philippines – Euromoney 2014
• Highly Commended Property Consultancy Award – International Property Awards Asia Pacific 2012-2013 – Philippines

Property types

The company manages both commercial and residential properties like condos, villas, apartments, retail property, land, and more.

Services offered

The company offers services in sales, leasing, project management, valuation, and consulting.

Office address

Colliers International | Manila, 11F Frabelle Business Center, 111 Rada Street Legaspi Village, Makati City 1229 Philippines

Santos Knight Frank

Santos Knight Frank was established when Rick Santos, the founder of the first CBRE office in Manila in 1994, decided to merge with Knight Frank. Both CBRE and Knight Frank are two heavy players in the real estate industry worldwide with thousands of professionals.

At the moment I’m writing this article, Knight Frank has around 1,200 employees that help foreigners and locals to buy properties all over the Philippines.

Property types

Santos Knight Frank can help you to find residential and commercial properties like condos, villas, hotels, apartments, office space, land, and more.

Services offered

The company offers a wide range of services, for example, facilities management, tenant representation, project management, property management, and others.

Office address

10F Ayala Tower One Exchange Plaza, Ayala Triangle, Ayala Avenue, Makati City, 1226, Philippines

JLL Philippines

JLL is one of the oldest and most reputable real estate agents in the world.

Founded as early as 1783, the company currently has almost 80,000 employees in over 80 countries and has been present in Asia over the five past decades. The managing director is Christophe Vicic who’s been with JLL for more than ten years.

Being one of the biggest real estate agents in Manila, it’s not strange that the company has earned awards like:

• The Asia Pacific Property Awards 2011 in association with Bloomberg Television
• International Property Consultancy of the Year for Excellence in Retail 2011 – Asia Retail Congress

Property types

The company mainly manages the leasing of residential and commercial properties.

Services offered

You can find a number of services offered by JLL, some examples are:

• Leasing
• Tenant representation
• Consulting
• Valuation and advisory
• Sales and acquisitions

Office address

Equitable Bank Tower, 8751 Paseo de Roxas, Makati, 1200 Metro Manila, Philippines

RE/MAX Philippines

RE/MAX is one of the biggest franchised real estate networks and was originally founded in Colorado in 1973. At the moment, the company has more than 110,000 professionals working in over 100 countries worldwide.

The first office in the Philippines opened in 2012 but they’ve managed to expand to 20 serving different cities since. The current president of RE/MAX Philippines is Elizabeth Duenas who has a long experience in the industry and has won many property awards.

Property types

The company mainly manages residential properties, like apartments, condos, houses, land and more.

Services offered

The company helps both locals and foreigners to buy, sell or to lease property.

Office address

25/F Citibank Tower, 8741 Paseo de Roxas St. Makati City, Philippines

Sotheby’s International Realty Philippines

Sotheby’s International Realty sometimes referred to as SIR, started as an auction house in the US hundreds of years ago.

This agent only deals with luxury property and has over 13,000 people working in different countries. Sotheby’s opened its first office in the Philippines in 2013 and the current COO is Darius Tenerife, who has a long experience in the real estate industry.

Property types

Luxury real estate like penthouses, condos, apartments, and houses.

Services offered

The company can help you to buy or sell luxury real estate in Metro Manila.

Office address

Unit 802, EcoTower, 32nd Street corner 9th Avenue, BGC, Taguig, 1634 Metro Manila, Philippines

Marsh Real Estate Agency

Marsh Real Estate Agency is managed by Rossanna Marie Nisperos (Owner and CEO) and Douglas J. Marsh (COO and Managing Director). They founded the company in 2007 and sell properties in Metro Manila.

Property types

Rossanna and Douglas help clients to buy or lease commercial and residential properties like apartments, condos, office space, and villas.

Services offered

You can get help with many services, for example:

• Sales and leasing
• Negotiations
• Property management
• Financing
• Market analysis

Office address

Unit # 102 Granada Bldg, Vista De Lago Villas, Taguig City, Philippines 1637

Phil. Property Expert

Phil. Property Expert, Inc. was founded by Joanne Almaden and was initially a listing site, before its incorporation in 2015.

The company has 5-10 professionals and serves both locals and foreigners who wish to buy property in Manila.

The company has won a number of awards, in 2016, it was voted as the “Most Trusted Brand by Consumers” by the National Consumers Affairs Foundation.

Property types

Phil. Property manages residential and commercial properties in Manila. Some examples are condos, apartments, villas, and land.

Services offered

You can get help with a number of services like, sales, leasing, title searches, loan applications, property management, and others.

Office address

10-01 One Global Place, 5th Ave cor 25th St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Metro Manila

How high are real estate agent commissions in Manila?

Agents and brokers charge you differently as the latter one is usually more experienced. With a broker, you normally pay 3-6% depending on the property value, while agents take 2-3%.

Where should I buy property in Manila?

Metro Manila is big, both in terms of population and land area. Manila makes up just a very small part of what’s called “Metro Manila”, in fact, it consists of different large districts and even cities.

Some of the most interesting areas are:

• Makati
• Taguig
• Quezon City

Makati is the financial district and where most commercial activity is going on. You’ll see that many of the real estate agents listed above have their offices in Makati. Still, property is surprisingly cheap in this area, I’ve spoken to foreigners who bought a multiple number of properties, to compensate for the lower rental yields you experience in Manila.

Taguig is famous for having great growth potentials, it’s grown from being a fishing village to becoming a popular area with many condos, high-rise buildings, and corporations.

Quezon City is a different city but part of Metro Manila. Although it’s less developed than Makati, many investors and analysts say that Quezon has great growth potentials and will have a business district similar to that of Makati. Property is significantly cheaper on average compared to Makati as well.