In short: the size of a development is not a brochure detail. It decides which amenities can be sustained, how bookings are spread across owners, and how many people end up living around you. San Fernando and El Nido are sized differently on purpose. That difference explains a good deal of what to expect from each.
The numbers, first
San Fernando holds 368 eco-villas in total: 347 Standard and 21 Premium.
El Nido takes another route. There are 149 Loft units and 82 Duplex, of which 21 remain available today. The rest are already taken.
That is the first big difference. San Fernando is a large complex with a narrow premium band; El Nido splits its units far more evenly between the two types.
What each one measures
In San Fernando the Standard runs to 56 square metres and the Premium to 64. In El Nido the Loft stays at those same 56 while the Duplex climbs to 95.6.
So the San Fernando Premium adds eight metres over the Standard, plus a private pool of 5.60 square metres. The jump from Loft to Duplex is a different order entirely. Almost forty metres more, with a terrace and a ten-metre pool.
These are not equivalent steps. In San Fernando, Premium means a slightly larger villa with its own pool. In El Nido, the Duplex is practically a different category of accommodation.
Why 368 is not an arbitrary figure
A small development can afford almost nothing. With twenty units there is no way to sustain a supermarket or a gym: not enough people to fill them, not enough service fees to pay for them.
San Fernando can. And it shows in what sits inside it: three coworking zones with a meeting room, a Pool Club with an artificial beach and four pools, restaurants and a lounge bar, a gym with padel, tennis and basketball courts. Also a Green School, a playground, a dog park, a supermarket, a laundry, a massage centre and spaces for training and art.
None of that exists in a thirty-villa development. The community fee reflects it: 69 euros a month in San Fernando.
In El Nido the logic shifts and so does the fee, 119 euros a month, because there are fewer units to share it between and because the surroundings supply a good part of what does not need building there.
What size does to occupancy
Here is what matters most if your unit goes into managed rental.
The operation runs on a pooled arrangement. Bookings are grouped and the result is shared out among owners, so nobody depends on whether their particular villa was booked in any given week.
With 368 units that pool absorbs a slow week without flinching. With twenty, one bad month hits everyone at once.
Size drags something else along with it: the demand it can absorb. San Fernando draws on three separate sources. The domestic traveller arriving from Manila on a flight of around fifty minutes or by road, the visitor to the wakeboarding complex that runs all year, and the Western remote worker. A small development cannot chase all three.
El Nido plays a different game
El Nido does not compete on size and does not need to.
Its case is the Bacuit Archipelago. It pulls long-haul international travel, regional Asian tourism and high-spending domestic visitors, and the square metre there commands more for a simple reason: demand travels further and stays longer.
That is why the Duplex was drawn at 95.6 square metres with a terrace and pool. It is not the same unit with extra floor area: it is a product built for a guest who books in a different way.
What to look at before deciding
If you are weighing the two against each other, the size of the development tells you more than it appears to. How many amenities sit next door follows directly from the unit count. How much the booking pool absorbs improves with volume. How many people live around you is an argument in favour for some and exactly the opposite for others. And the monthly fee holding all that up is 69 euros in San Fernando against 119 in El Nido.
Neither configuration is better in the abstract. They answer to two different settings and two guest profiles that have little in common.
Frequently asked questions
Are units still available in both projects?
In El Nido, 21 Duplex remain of the 82 built. For exact availability in San Fernando by phase, ask the team: it moves.
Do only Premium units have a pool?
A private one, yes. But the San Fernando complex also has four shared pools in the Pool Club, open to everyone.
Does the size of the development affect what I earn from rental?
It affects the pool, not the nightly rate. Bookings are grouped and then shared: more units, steadier month-to-month distribution.
Can I use my unit whenever I want?
Yes, with no cap on nights, provided you tell the operations team in advance so those dates get blocked.
Want floor plans and current availability for either unit type? The Land of Nomads team will send them over, in as much detail as you ask for.
