Philippine Real Estate

PAREB REALTORS trace their beginnings in the Philippines on November 7, 1938, when the Manila Realty Board (later incorporated and renamed Manila Board of REALTORS® in 1952) was organized by Colin McCrae Hoskins. With Hoskins, the following constituted the nucleus of the pioneer realty board in the Philippines - Jose Araneta, Federico Calero, Jose Felix, Rosendo Subido, J. Perez Tagle, and Tomas de Vera.

The Manila Board of REALTORS® was later accredited into membership with the NAREB (now NAR, USA) and was thereby authorized to license its members to use the term REALTOR® in the Philippines, a service mark owned by NAREB and registered with the U. S. Patent Office as Doc. No. 519780 and 515200, and with the Philippines Patent Office as Doc. No. 5385.

The Davao Realty Board (now Davao Board of REALTORS® Foundation, Inc.) was organized on September 18, 1951 with the assistance of REALTORS® Lucio Ildefonso, Federico Calero, and Aurelio Aquino. It was incorporated on July 29, 1952, with REALTORS® Juan Espolong, Joseph De Tagle, Alfonso Mata, Jose Tinio and Enrico Nograles as the first members.

On February 3, 1953, NAREB resolved to recognize the Manila Board of REALTORS® as a national organization and elected Federico Calero as Director of the NAREB. However, Antonio Varias, who succeeded Calero as President of Manila Board of REALTORS® in 1953, felt that the conversion of the Manila Board of REALTORS® into a national organization with Davao, the only one other realty board existing at the time, would not reflect a national association. He wanted more boards organized in other urban centers in the country to form the nucleus.

 To make the Association truly national in scope, REALTOR® Antonio Varias spearheaded a committee in 1955 which was charged with the task of organizing REALTORS® Boards in other parts of the country. An intensive campaign was launched to prepare and qualify for licensing as real estate brokers those who wanted to consider it as a profession.

 On April 29, 1960, PAREB was incorporated with the signing of its Articles of Incorporation, as witnessed by Secretary ManueL Lim and Director Rizalino Pablo of the Bureau of Commerce.

The right to use the term REALTOR® in the Philippines, pertains exclusively only to members of PAREB

REALTOR® is a service mark registered in the Commission of Patents of the United States of America as Document No. 515199 and in the Philippine Patent Office as Document No. 5385, as property of the National Association of REALTORS® Boards, now known as the National Association of REALTORS® or NAR. NAR has conferred upon PAREB since 1960, the authority to use the REALTOR® term and trademark.

No other real estate broker or service practitioner or real estate organization in the Philippines may use the term REALTOR® other than regular members in good standing of PAREB who subscribe to a Code of Ethics. NAR’s recent victory in defeating the legal challenge to the uniqueness of the REALTOR® trademark is a timely reminder that the terms REALTOR® and REALTORS® aren’t synonymous with generic terms, such as "real estate practitioner" or "real estate agent " or "real estate broker".