According to Collier’s, there is an increase in office space demand from 333,000 sqm to 434,000 sqm this 1H17. The increase amounting a surprising 30.33% regardless of building completion. There is a decline of BPO growth 60% to the present 31% this year. This decline is attributed to political uncertainty according to Leechui Property consultants. In my humble opinion, it may be attributed to the speculations of threatening government policy that may want to pursue the removal of VAT exemption incentive of PEZA registered companies or maybe the BPO sector just yearns to diversify their investment throughout south-east Asia. Another widespread speculation if the shifting of lower skilled BPO segment into automation, fortunately, Philippines was already preparing to focus on highly skilled BPO and Analytics since last year.
Despite all these circumstances, the Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) is taking the slack. POGO office demand increased from 9% to 30% of office demand this year. Overall this re-balancing might be good for our economy since a diversification like will give resiliency to our real estate sectors hence this robust demand is good for publicly listed stock companies to engage in providing office space like MEG, ALI, VLL, RLC, and SMPH.
Good luck and God Bless!
P.S.
Investors are the new Philippine Heroes. Please continue to investing and believing the Philippines Growth Story.