Why Irishman is selling Pearl in the Philippines

AT 27 YEARS old, Gavin Dunne is fast making his mark in the overseas housing market with his first development on Boracay - a tiny, but highly sought-after holiday island in the Philippines - with the softest white sand, fabulous water sports and a very cheap cost of living, writes Mary Wilson.

He's building The Pearl, a collection of 181 luxurious apartments in partnership with Filipino hotelier, Greg Sanson - who built the four-star Pearl of the Pacific hotel in Boracay 18 years ago. The apartments will be the first and, at present, only freehold residential units available on the island which foreigners can buy.

The developers say that the apartments - which cost from €88,000 to €210,000-plus - should make an estimated 12 per cent rental yield.

Boracay is just across the water from Caticlan, a village on the very much larger island of Panay. After taking a short internal flight from Manila to Caticlan you hop onto one of the ferries, which have colourful wooden central hulls with wide bamboo frames either side to balance the craft - and cost only 30 cent a ride.

The attraction of this 7km-long island is its laid-back, ultra cheap lifestyle - a bottle of beer costs around 60 cent, a huge T-bone steak under €5 and fresh lobster around €8. There are no cars on Boracay - just mopeds, tricycle taxis or open-sided small vans.

Twenty years ago, there were only the local "nipa" huts to stay in. But now there are over 300 hotels, bars and restaurants - all hidden as you approach from the see behind a line of palm trees. Hotels are the one thing that are not cheap, so buying there - for investment and for your own use - makes sense.

The sand on the island's famous White Beach is so soft it feels like talcum powder and because it is almost white, it's cool to walk on, although the outside temperature is 35 degrees. In the spring and autumn, it's cooler and less sticky. You can eat in French, Italian, Greek and Japanese restaurants as well as Filipino ones, drink cocktails and listen to music on the beach until the early hours - all for a third of what it would cost in Europe.

And when you tire of the beach, you can go island hopping, sailing, parascending, horse riding, snorkelling, surfing or even play a round of golf.

It's a long haul to Boracay from Ireland, but worth it once you get there. You either fly to London or Amsterdam before taking a flight to Manila, via the Middle East, Singapore or Hong Kong.

Boracay is popular as a holiday destination with wealthy Filipinos, South Koreans, Russians, Americans and Europeans and tourism is rising at 10 per cent a year.

Prices at The Pearl start at €88,000 for a studio, from €129,000 for one-bedroom apartments, from €159,000 for two-beds and from €210,000 for a two-bedroom loft penthouse. Each apartment will have its own underground storage area, ground floor apartments will have their own gardens and the other apartments will have balconies.

The penthouses will have large roof terraces. Most apartments will have sea views and there will be a restaurant, beach bar, hair salon, gym, spa and mini-market as well as a 24-hour security, management and rental service. Gavin Dunne discovered Boracay through a Filipino colleague he met working for a property company in Dublin. But he had set out on an entrepreneurial route early in life. His first business was running a school shop, selling pencils and copy books, at the age of eight. He went to the Dublin Institute of Technology, leaving with a degree in marketing and management, expecting to find a job without difficulty.

But that didn't happen: "I was 21 years old and there just weren't the jobs for the taking. I wanted to work, so became a door-to-door salesman, selling cheap calls for a telecom company." He set up his own telecoms company but " the market changed and with Skype and broadband coming in, together with ruthless competitors, I couldn't compete."

He sold out to a larger company and turned to property development instead, buying land in Bulgaria. "Five years ago, Bulgaria was the next big thing in property and land was cheap. I sold three plots on three to four months later, making a 25 per cent profit.

"This was my first toe dipped into real estate and I learnt a great deal about red tape and bureaucracy," he says.

He then went to Australia for a break, but during a stopover in Singapore noticed that all the taxi interiors were jammed with advertising.

"I didn't intend to work over there, but ended up setting up a company selling ad space in taxis. I did this for six months and luckily was tipped off that legislation was about to be brought in banning taxi ads, so managed to sell the company just in time for a small profit."

Since then he's stuck to property, buying and selling land in Slovakia, working as an estate agent in Dublin, then in Italy.

During his time there a Filipino colleague, who was friends with Greg Sanson, told Gavin that he was looking for a European partner to put a residential project together.

Dunne also met Dan Astren, who runs The Swedish Investment Company and who is now financing the Boracayan project.

"I spent about two months on the phone, with presentations going back and forth, working out a master plan. I finally flew over in September and have been there ever since."

It has taken six months to get the necessary permits at a cost of over €200,000, but now the project is on track and already he's sold 11 units to purchasers from the United Kingdom, Russia, Sweden and America.

Sunkissed Properties, 1800 550417 in Ireland 00639293444826 in Philippines www.sansonanddunne.com