Camella Inc. also known as simply Camella, is a house and lot and condominium developer in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. It is the flagship subsidiary of

Vista Land Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. also known as simply Vista Land, is a Real estate development, property developer in the Philippines engaged in the real estate and Retail, retail industries. The company is part of the Villar Group of Companies associ ...

, which is part of the Villar Group of Companies associated with

Manny Villar Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar Jr. (; born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and former politician. He previously served as senator from 2001 to 2013 and as the 20th President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2006 to 2008. Before ...

History

Camella was founded by Manuel B. Villar, Jr. in August 1977. Villar took out a seven-year loan from a rural bank offering low interest rates then kick-started building and selling at his first project, Camella Homes Phase 1 and 2 in

Las Piñas Las Piñas (, officially the City of Las Piñas (), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of ...

, with 160 units initially. The company became the pioneer for developing house and lot packages in the country when the usual practice at that time was to sell lots for future homeowners to build on. This initiated the mass housing projects through

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...

, utilizing the cost advantages of developing a large-scale project to bring down housing prices. Camella has since become the country's largest home building company.

Accolades

Camella has been recognized by

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

as Asia's Trusted Brand in property development from 2012 to 2017. In 2016, Camella's ''Camella Palawan'' resort was named as Best Housing Development by the Philippines Property Awards.

Controversies

Monopolization of Internet connectivity

In March 2021, the

homeowner association A homeowner association (or homeowners' association OA sometimes referred to as a property owners' association OA common interest development ID or homeowner community) is a private, Incorporation (business), legally-incorporated orga ...

s of the Camella Cerritos Heights and Lessandra Heights residential subdivision developments in

Bacoor Bacoor (), officially the City of Bacoor (), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city in the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 664,625 ...

Cavite Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite (; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region. On the southern shores of Manila Bay and southwest of Manila, i ...

protested the prohibition of

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s competing against sister company

Planet Cable Streamtech Systems Technologies, Inc. is a Philippine telecommunications company. Founded by Manuel Paolo A. Villar (son of real estate magnate and politician Manuel Villar Jr.), it offers communication services such as fiber to the home, inte ...

(now Streamtech) from operating in their neighborhoods. In a letter to the

National Telecommunications Commission The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; ) is the telecommunications regulator of the Philippines. It is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication ...

, Cerritos Heights Homeowners Association Inc. (CHHAI) president Toteng Tanglao wrote about the unavailability of ISPs aside from Planet Cable due to

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

issues and lack of permits given to build

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

lines inside Cerritos Heights Phases 1 and 2, Cerritos Terraces and Cerritos Hills Phases 1, 2 and 3. This was forwarded to the

Philippine Competition Commission The Philippine Competition Commission (PhCC) is an independent, quasi-judicial body formed to implement the Philippine Competition Act (Republic Act No. 10667). The PhCC aims to promote and maintain market competition within the Philippines by ...

. Camella did not respond to their initial request, as well as to the same from

Lani Mercado Lani Mercado-Revilla (; born Jesusa Victoria Garcia Hernandez-Bautista; April 13, 1968) is a Filipino actress and politician serving as representative of Cavite's 2nd district, which comprises only the city of Bacoor, from 2010 to 2016. Pers ...

, the Mayor of Bacoor. Furthermore, a team of armed security guards blocked personnel of

Globe Telecom Globe Telecom, Inc., commonly shortened as Globe, is a major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines. The company operates one of the largest mobile, fixed-line and broadband networks in the Philippines. As of November 2023, ...

, a subsidiary of conglomerate

Ayala Corporation Ayala Corporation (, formerly ''Ayala y Compañía''; ) is the publicly listed holding company for the diversified interests of the Ayala Group. Founded in the Philippines by Domingo Róxas and Antonio de Ayala during Spanish colonial rule, ...

, from installing Internet access cables the May of the same year. Camella responded to the petition by releasing a set of policies clarifying and formalizing the process for accepting entry of other providers.

PLDT PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (), is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service company. PLDT is one of the Philippine's major telecommunications providers, along with Globe Te ...

had since then sent the CHHAI initial plans to service their area.

References

{{reflist Real estate companies of the Philippines Philippine companies established in 1977 Companies based in Mandaluyong Real estate companies established in 1977 Villar Group of Companies