BACOLOD City's office vacancy has remained stable despite the completion of new buildings, a global real property services company said.
Colliers International Philippines reported Tuesday, May 14, that despite the addition of 11,000 square meters, or 118,000 square feet of new supply, vacancy in the Negros Occidental capital city has remained low as the new space was taken up by an outsourcing company.
The firm cited Ubiquity, Teletech, Teleperformance, Convergys, Transcom, and Panasiatic as among the major outsourcing players in the city.
"The expansion of these companies as well as growing queries for office space has compelled other national developers to offer leasable space," it said.
Data presented by Colliers showed that in 2018, Ayala Land Incorporated opened its Bacolod Capitol Corporate Center, adding about 11,000 square meters, or 118,000 square feet, to the city's leasable office stock.
It raised the city's stock to 118,500 square meters equivalent to 1.28 million square feet.
Ayala also plans to offer an additional 7,800 square meters, or 84,000 square feet, of new office space in its Ayala Malls Capitol Central, due for completion this year.
In addition, Megaworld said it will likely build two business process outsourcing (BPO) office buildings in 2021 within its The Upper East township, while SM Prime Holdings is also planning to develop its own BPO tower within its complex.
Details of SM's office project have yet to be finalized, Colliers said.
It further reported that the Provincial Government's Negros First Cyber Center Phase II project and another Bacolod City-based developer are due to deliver around 15,000 square meters, or 161,000 square feet, of new supply from 2019 to 2021.
"Excluding the developer's plans, we see an estimated 14,300 square meters of new office supply per annum from 2019 to 2021," it said, adding this should bring Bacolod City's office stock to 161,300 square meters or 1.74 million square feet in 2021 higher by 36 percent from 118,500 square meters or 1.28 million square feet in 2018.
Amid the rising interest from occupants, Colliers recommended that developers build office towers within Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza)-registered properties.
Also, it recognized the need to develop larger floor plates for consolidation of tenants, offer more plug-and-play offices, and tweak the tenancy mixes of their retail podiums so as to attract or retain occupants.
Moreover, Colliers is encouraging tenants to partner with government-run training centers to upgrade employees' skills and keep an eye on new office towers due to be completed in the next three years.