MANILA, Philippines – All sectors under the real estate industry are seen to continue upward growth, according to investment management firm JLL in its preliminary Metro Manila Property Market Overview (PMO) report.
Sustained demand in real estate seen for 2019
Sustaining this demand are business process outsourcing (BPO), online gaming, and other tech-driven companies, according to JLL.
The firm's research and consultancy director Janlo de los Reyes on Thursday, April 11, said that despite the increasing real estate demand from BPO and online gaming firms, vacancy levels will remain healthy at 6%.
Also contributing to the demand are mainland Chinese investors, which are associated with offshore gaming. The increase of Chinese businesses in the country also drove up office and residential space demand. (READ: Finance department zeroes in on foreign online gambling workers)
"We could see interest still coming from mainland Chinese investors looking into investing 300 hectares, 500 hectares," De Los Reyes told Rappler.
"Definitely, there is a big chunk of demand coming from China, but what we expect to see in the coming months, in the coming years, it's going to diversify [to other industries]. We're gonna see more industries from mainland China coming [into] the Philippines," he added.
Despite the potential influx of Chinese businesses, JLL sees no signs of the real estate sector overheating anytime soon as the demand is "contained in select areas."
"Some developers, they're containing this demand from certain towers, certain buildings, or certain areas just to properly manage them (Chinese businesses), at the same time, to mitigate their risk," De Los Reyes said.