Tytans Properties and Tambuli Seaside Living: Six Years Late, and What Buyers Should Ask

Tytans Properties and Development, Inc. has delivered a working beachfront resort complex in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, and it took far longer than the company originally told the market. The developer announced Tambuli Seaside Living in January 2014 with a target of handing over the first phase in the fourth quarter of 2016. Eight years later, in August 2022, the turnover date had moved to the first quarter of 2023, and the definition of phase one had changed from 288 units to 1,350. The buildings exist, guests stay in them, and the company has since signed a hotel deal with a global operator. Anyone buying off plan here should price in that timeline history rather than the brochure.

What was announced, and when

The original project was reported by The Philippine Star on 9 January 2014. The company bought the site of the former Tambuli Beach Resort in Barangay Buyong, Lapu-Lapu City, a parcel of about 110,000 square metres with roughly 200 metres of natural beachfront. Phase one, as described then, was two mid-rise towers of ten storeys each, 144 units per tower, so 288 units in total. Studios were specified at 35 to 38 square metres and one-bedroom units at 46 to 63 square metres. That report named Montano Ty as chairman and Gerard Tan as president, with Alex Medalla as project architect. Phase one turnover was targeted for the fourth quarter of 2016.

The next public milestone in the record is a SunStar Cebu report dated 18 August 2022. By then buyers were being told that turnover would begin in the first quarter of 2023. In the same report, phase one is described as a total of 1,350 luxury residential condominiums and condotels, a very different building programme from the 288 units announced in 2014. The report attributes exterior damage on both finished and unfinished buildings to Typhoon Odette, which struck the Visayas in December 2021. Gerard Tan appears there as chief executive officer and Congressman Sonny Lagon as president.

Two things follow from putting those reports side by side. The schedule slipped by at least six years against the company's own published target. And the scope grew by roughly a factor of five, which is a reasonable commercial decision on an eleven hectare site but also a material change to what early buyers signed up for. Neither is misconduct. Both are questions a buyer should put to the sales team directly.

What has actually been built

There is evidence the complex is operating rather than stalled. BusinessWorld reported on 5 March 2024 that Tambuli Seaside Resort and Spa opened in 2019. Units inside Tambuli Seaside Living are listed for short-term stays on booking platforms, including a Tambuli Seaside Living Staycation listing on Booking.com, which indicates residential units have been turned over to owners and are being let. Broker listings in the Cebu market advertise units across several towers in the complex.

That matters because the common failure mode in Philippine pre-selling is a project that never rises above the hoarding. This is not that pattern. The issue is timing and scope, not existence.

The Accor deal

On 28 February 2024, Accor issued a press release announcing Pullman Mactan Cebu Hotel and Residences, developed with Tytans Properties Development. The release describes 1,100 keys in total, made up of 200 guest rooms and suites plus 900 branded residences, with construction to commence in 2025 and opening in 2028. BusinessWorld covered the same announcement on 5 March 2024, quoting Andrew Langdon, Accor's chief development officer for Asia, alongside Gerard Tan, described there as chairman of the developer.

The Accor release names the company's officers as Gerard Tan, chairman, Congressman Sonny Lagon, president, and Congresswoman Daphne A. Lagon, board member. On the Accor side it names Garth Simmons as chief operating officer for Accor Asia, Andrew Langdon as chief development officer for Asia, Chris Cho as vice president of development for Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Korea and the Maldives, and Kash Salvador as director of development for the Philippines.