Siska Hutapea, chief appraiser at Captain, Hutapea & Associates, told the Rotary Club of Northern Guam that although the projected population boom originally slated to peak in 2014 will be delayed, a demand for commercial and residential real estate will still surge.
Hutapea cited a projected population growth that Joseph Bradley presented, in which even the slowest projected growth scenario pegged at 14,580 people by 2011 will still create a need for the real estate to fill, whether commercial or residential properties.
Hutapea said at least 7,000 new units will be needed to fill that population growth by next year. Currently, Guam has about 40,000 units housing about 178,000 people, she said.
“In the beginning, industrial rent and building will be on demand and then it will shoot through. Of course, the residential market will also come in because of the new population. Then the commercial market will be stronger to support the new population,” Hutapea said.
She stressed the need for better risk analysis and exit strategy.
She highlighted the real estate trends in the last decade, particularly in 2007 when numerous luxury housing projects were proposed but have yet to commence, have sold only a few units, or are sitting in limbo.
She said there is a need to be creative and to take advantage of federal grant funding as what local real estate developer Carlos Camacho did when he used U.S. Department of Agriculture loans to fund low-cost housing projects throughout the island.
Captain, Hutapea & Associates is the only real estate consulting firm studying economic real estate trends in Guam’s market, she said.
