Fresh air, a spacious lot, a house you can extend and a lush garden where kids can play — everything one could miss by living in a high rise can be achieved by moving to a highland.
Because of its cool weather, serenity and nearness to Metro Manila, Tagaytay is among Filipino city dwellers’ top picks as location for their vacation or dream homes, says Santiago Elizalde, senior vice president for real estate development company Roxaco Land Corp.
“Tagaytay is one of the top three destinations in the Philippines because of its accessibility to Metro Manila,” he enthuses. “Because of the South Luzon Expressway, travel time to Tagaytay from Makati is one hour or less. For people living in the daily grind of being in Manila from Monday to Friday, an hour of traveling for a getaway is convenient.”
Tagaytay saw an increase in inbound tourists from last year, he bares, with 4.2 million tourists expected to flock the town this year.
Vicky Maniquis, landowner and VJ Properties Inc. president, noticed that Tagaytay is growing and no longer a sanctuary for a few. “I felt too selfish to just keep it as my sanctuary and not share its benefits,” she explains on why she agreed to convert her pineapple plantation into Roxaco’s new residential and resort development, Anya. Elizalde is a long time friend of her son, Steve, who heard Elizalde was looking for a new property to develop.
“I felt strongly about the property,” Elizalde explains. “It’s still secluded, it has a rolling terrain, bamboos, palm trees, perfect.”
But before allowing Roxaco to touch her land, Vicky had one condition. “I want the trees to stay. There should be no big equipment to roam around because it will destroy the plants. So every tree was transferred before bulldozers came in,” she expounds. “We’re here for the environment. Normally, developers only buy raw land, but Anya is already a developed land and it’s what makes it different.”
This look, as if it has been here for years because of its mature trees and tropical landscape, makes Anya unique, Elizalde says, true to its origin as the Sanskrit word for “boundless and extraordinary.”
“Each lot owner will have all these plants. We will help them move the plants and not throw these away unlike in other developments,” assures Maniquis, who is now the project’s in-house landscape consultant. “Roads have to be kept to a minimum to preserve what’s here and keep it simple,” Elizalde adds.
Roxaco plans to continue growing vegetables in the area, and even build small green houses, to supply its resort’s restaurant and residents.
“We’re big proponents of green architecture so every house in Anya will have big windows to promote sunlight use. We will recycle and collect rain water to reduce dependence on deep wells. We will try to be self-sustained and sustainable to promote clean living,” he avows.
Anya’s planting strips, landscaped sidewalks, swimming pool, pocket parks, open spaces and other green facilities set in a quiet mountain setting in Barangay Mag-Asawang Ilat, makes it ideal for people with active lifestyles like Elizalde.
“The Anya environment from the start lends itself to being in the outdoors and living a healthy lifestyle,” he shares. “I’ve been very active all my life. My wife is a yoga practitioner and teacher. I have no vice. My whole lifestyle has revolved around sports and active lifestyle. We also teach our children to do the same. The food we eat is healthy most of the time.”

Eco-friendly Asian design
Anya’s energy-efficient house designs are by the esteemed design and architectural firm Emmanuel A. Miñana and Associates.
When Roxaco asked Miñana to design the homes for Anya Resort and Residences, he knew he had to create a jewel of a community — one that eschews the typical notion of what living in Tagaytay is: that is looking out into the lake and volcano. Instead, he looked within the property and created a haven that celebrated seclusion and exclusivity. To communicate this sense of privacy, the architect envisioned an enclave where homes are beautifully homogenized and integrate seamlessly with the natural environment.
“In Anya, we actually wanted to create a very harmonious, unified architecture that evoke the luxury of a residential resort community. The environment also provided the inspiration of the architecture of the homes. Here, I did a sequencing of space that is deliberate. Through the homes in Anya, I will be able to take a person through an experience that shows a slow unraveling of space,” the architect elucidates.
To showcase the beauty of Anya’s naturally rolling terrain, lush vegetation and the feeling of quietude, Miñana drew inspiration from Filipino-Asian architectural concepts.
“The silhouette of the homes is very Asian in style because of our desire to create a sense of mystique. We did that by imbuing the design with quiet and privacy. First, you have an opaque blanket of stone to conceal the inside. But inside, it’s a very open home — a very warm home. On the inside, the spaces are mostly surrounded by glass, which opens to the flora and fauna outside. Each home looks and feels like it’s quietly coming out of the ground,” Miñana explains in a statement.
Miñana used organic materials such as stone and wood. Noticeable, too, is the sense of restraint in the homes’ architecture. The unadorned style resonates with unforced elegance where space and light flow from one room to another — and where the surrounding environment makes its presence felt inside the comfort of one’s home. The metal roofing, shaped like shingles and details like the barandilla, evoke the charm of classic Filipino homes.
Anya’s residential part is 90 percent complete, with close to 80 percent sold because its boutique, condotel (condo hotel) concept of only 54 lots set off the busy Tagaytay public road appeals to early retirees, those turned off by crowded Tagaytay condos, and those looking for a weekend retreat from Metro Manila’s hustle and bustle, Elizalde says.
Although secluded, the development offers “worry-free” living as it is equipped with what Roxaco claims as first-class underground electrical facilities, high-speed Wi-Fi Internet service, a perimeter fence, a residents’ pavilion with concierge, and an entrance gate and guard house separate from that of the resort for privacy. Nuvali is 20 minutes away for shopping.
On the other half of the 5.7-hectare project will rise a resort by January or February next year, Elizalde divulges. The boutique resort will be open to the public and will have a destination spa and restaurant to be managed by Fuego Resorts, which is under Roxaco. The company also manages Davao Pearl Farm, Seven Stones Boracay, and in the past, Taal Vista Hotel, Elizalde says. Roxaco’s plan, he reveals, is to replicate Anya in other tourist destinations around the country.
“Every home must hold a promise,” Miñana quotes iconic American architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen in encapsulating his design principle.
“You don’t just enter a home. You can imbue a space with something more special by just opening up a succession of other spaces; by breaking down the opaque quality and providing a sense of transparency and freedom. It is akin to eventually opening up the chakras,” he adds.
“I realized then that as an architect, I can enliven a place by imbuing it with a sense of serendipity and discovery. Through this experience, I can actually offer a better way to live.”

For inquiries, call (632) 751.7256, check out www.anyaresort.com or e-mail info@anyaresort.com.