Moncello
Crest

Lifestyle

Fourteen renders, captioned from the pixels

Worth flagging before you look: four of DMCI’s own file names do not match the captions they baked into the images. Their “Landscaped Gardens” is captioned Water Garden, “Multipurpose Court” is Basketball Court, “Open Sky Lounge” and “Sky Deck” are both captioned Roof Deck, and “Viewing Deck” is Deck Garden. Everything below is named for what is actually in the frame.

Elevated Boardwalk

Fire Pit

Outdoor Jacuzzi

Water Garden

Water Garden Stream

Deck Garden

Roof Deck

Roof Deck Terraces

Sky Patio (Lumiventt)

Cafe (Ciela Building)

Open Lounge (Blanca)

Reception Lobby (Blanca)

Basketball Court

Children's Play Area

Transparency

What the site actually looks like

DMCI’s latest published completion figure for Moncello Crest is 32.41% as of May 2026, up from 23.69% in December 2025. Note the date: on their other projects they were publishing July figures when this page was written, so Moncello’s update runs a couple of months behind. Ask for the current one rather than assuming.

June 2026 site photoStructural works cut into the slope

April 2026 · 30.58%Two months earlier, for the pace

Earthworks and craneThe cut-and-fill this terrain needs, and the crane serving it

Building on a Benguet mountainside is slower and more expensive than building on flat ground, and the photographs show why. Roughly 32% at May 2026 against a first turnover in November 2028 leaves a little over two years for the remaining two-thirds — achievable, but this is the project on the list where the monthly update is most worth watching.

Location

Baguio’s climate, five kilometres outside Baguio

This is the fact the marketing tends to blur, so let us be exact. Moncello Crest is not in Baguio City. It is in Tuba, Benguet — the mountain municipality that wraps around Baguio on its south and west — at 16.3890°N, 120.5558°E. Here is what DMCI themselves publish:

Straight-line distances published by DMCI Homes on their own Moncello Crest page, read 3 September 2026. These are straight-line distances on mountain roads — the drive is considerably longer than the number suggests.

Read properly, that table is the argument for the location. You get Baguio’s climate, pine air and mountain views at the elevation people go to Baguio for, while sitting outside the city that has become notorious for gridlock and overbuilding. Burnham Park, SM Baguio and Camp John Hay are a drive away when you want them, not outside your window when you don’t.

The downside, said plainly

You need a car, and you need to be comfortable on mountain roads in the rain. Tuba is reached by Bontiway off the Baguio approach; there is no rail, and public transport is jeepney. The site itself is steep enough that DMCI runs golf carts inside the property to move residents between buildings — a genuinely useful amenity, and also a straightforward admission about the gradient.

Benguet also gets the full force of the typhoon season, and mountainside construction is slower for it. If you want a leisure unit you can reach without a mountain drive, Solmera Coast in San Juan, Batangas is the coastal alternative and turns over sooner; if you want to be inside Baguio City proper, One South Drive on South Drive is the address — at roughly two and a half times the entry price.

The Buildings & The Unit Mix

Three buildings, three different handover dates

Most DMCI projects on this site are one tower. Moncello Crest is three, and they do not finish together. That is the single most important thing to get right before you reserve, because the brochure headline says “2028” and two of the three buildings are 2029.

If getting the keys sooner matters, Blanca is the building — and Blanca is also where almost all the cheapest studios sit. If you want a two-bedroom, you are almost certainly buying in Ciela: 46 of the 48 available two-bedrooms are there, and they hand over nine months later.

The unit mix, as it stands today

• Studio — 182 available. 34.5 to 45 sqm, ₱8,050,000 to ₱9,300,000. Seven in ten of everything left. Note the sizes: these are not city studios, they are resort-sized.
• 1BR — 26 available. 62.5 sqm in Ciela at ₱12,760,000, 68 sqm in Blanca at ₱13,050,000. Both are fixed prices — every unit in the tier costs the same.
• 2BR — 48 available. 69 to 91.5 sqm, ₱14,280,000 to ₱18,120,000. Forty-six of them in Ciela.

What a peso actually buys

The pattern is the usual one but the gap is narrower than in the city towers: the studio carries a 16% premium per square metre over the two-bedroom, not the 30%+ you see at Sage. The cheapest floor area on the whole site is a 91.5 sqm two-bedroom in Blanca at ₱17,550,000 — ₱191,803 per sqm, and there are exactly two of them.

The honest caveat: these are high prices per square metre for Benguet — ₱192,000 to ₱235,000 is Metro Manila money. You are paying resort-development prices for a resort development, on land that cost a great deal to build on. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on the next section.

Orientation

Blanca splits 86 rear units facing east against 10 front facing west; Ciela splits 56 rear northwest against 62 front southeast; Silva’s 20 studios all face northwest. On a mountainside the aspect is about which valley you look into and when you get sun, not about a city skyline — and DMCI does not price it differently here. Ask to stand in the actual stack before you choose, or at minimum ask Kris which valley each elevation faces.

The Honest Read

It is a condotel. Buy it as one.

Everything about this project makes sense the moment you stop reading it as a condominium. Two restaurants, a specialty restaurant, a cafe, a convention center, a business center, a spa, and 71% of the inventory in resort-sized studios — that is a hospitality asset with a rental pool attached, not a housing estate.

The full list, as DMCI publishes it

Main dining restaurant · specialty restaurant · restaurant deck · cafe · convention center · business center · spa · outdoor jacuzzi · fire pit · elevated boardwalk · water garden · landscaped gardens · open sky lounge · sky deck · sky promenade · sky patio (Lumiventt Technology) · viewing deck · open lounge · lounge area · open lawn / picnic grove · gazebo / cabana · fitness gym · jogging and biking path · basketball court / playcourt · multipurpose court · children’s play area · children’s recreation space / daycare · entertainment room · game room · arrival court · reception lobby · balcony view · golf cart inside the property · high-speed internet in all common areas · 100% power back-up · 24-hour security · perimeter fence · provision for CCTV.

Source: the amenity list on dmcihomes.com, read 3 September 2026. Amenities are as planned across a three-building masterplan and are delivered with the masterplan, not with any one building.

Straight Talk

Who this is for — and who it isn’t

Against the nearest DMCI alternatives

The honest comparison is the rest of DMCI’s leisure and regional line. All figures from the current availability list: