BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MANILA BOARD OF REALTORS INC.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MANILA BOARD OF REALTORS INC.

a member of the Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards

The Manila Board of Realtors, Inc. is the oldest SEC-registered non-stock, non-profit professional association of real estate practitioners in the Philippines.  Organized on November 7, 1938, initially as an association of practicing real estate brokers, it was originally named the Manila Realty Board. 

The organizations founders were:  Macario Arabejo, Jose Araneta, Federico Calero, Jose Felix, Colin Hoskins, Rosendo Subido,  J. Perez de Tagle,  and Tomas de Vera. Many of them were among the country's pioneering leaders in the real estate industry.

Despite growing pains and the disruption of WWII, the association survived and prospered to become a recognized voice in the country's real estate industry.   Thus, the Manila Board of Realtors was admitted into membership with the largest worldwide association of real estate brokers – the National Association of Real Estate Boards of America (NAREB).  By virtue of this membership, it was thereby authorized to allow its members to use the term “ Realtor”, a copyrighted service mark registered in the United States Patent Office.

In 1952, the Manila Realty Board was incorporated with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines as the “Manila Board of Realtors, Inc.”  Among the incorporators were founding realtor members – Federico Calero, Colin Hoskins, Lucio Ildefonso,  Tedoro Kalaw, Jr., Gervacio de Ocampo, Jr., Rosendo Subido,  Antonio Varias, Artemio Valencia, and Tomas de Vera. 

As its ranks grew beyond Manila, there was a need to create new chapters nationwide.  Thus the Manila Board spearheaded the organization of several other realtor boards in various cities nationwide and this today has become the country's largest group of realty practitioners – the Philippine Association of Realtors Boards.

Eventually, many other real estate organizations spinned off from the PAREB, among them –  REBAP and NAR Philippines.   PAREB itself was incorporated in 1960 and today has more than 50 member boards nationwide.

In 2011, the U.S.-based National Association of Realtors (formerly the NAREB) shifted its local affiliation from PAREB to CREBA.  Thus,  PAREB renamed to the Philippine Association of Real Estate Boards (still “PAREB” for short) and discouraged member organizations from using the term “Realtor” unless directly affiliated with NAR.

Today, the Manila Board continues to be the biggest member organization of PAREB, with close to 300 members.