MANOLO FORTICH, PHILIPPINES — Manila’s wealthy have long favored the nearby “summer cities” of Baguio and Tagaytay, their altitude providing some relief from the heat of the Philippine capital.

But in recent years, Bukidnon, a province in the center of the southern island of Mindanao, has gained a reputation for new vacation and retirement homes in a comfortable climate that is also south of the country’s treacherous typhoon belt.

This shift began in 2008, when Elpidio Paras, one of the country’s cable TV pioneers, opened a zip-line resort in Manolo Fortich, a town in the foothills of Mount Kitanglad just outside the Bukidnon capital, Malaybalay. Around 100,000 tourists have visited the spot, 1,432 meters, or 4,700 feet, above sea level, to ride the 2,460-meter zip lines, advertised as the longest in Asia.

Since then, the real estate developer A. Brown Co. has turned 275 hectares, or 680 acres, of pine-covered land on Kitanglad into an upscale subdivision of custom-built chalet-style homes. Lots starting at 700 square meters, or 7,535 square feet, are being sold at 1,200 Philippine pesos per square meter, or about $2.80 per square foot.