International property consultancy firm, Colliers Philippines, recently cited the low supply of office spaces ready for information and communications technology (ICT) business in Bacolod City as compared to other major cities as an opportunity to continuously leverage on its competitiveness as an ICT hub.
This, as local ICT leaders also foresee the growth of microsites outside of the city.
Colliers Philippines Head of Research and Associate Director Joey Roi Bondoc and his team visited the city recently, and met with the officers of the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (Bnefit) and other stakeholders to discuss the property outlook here.
Bondoc reported that the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.3 percent in the first quarter of 2021, higher than a 3.8 percent contraction in 2020, with all regions in the country growing in 2021 from a contraction in 2020.
Western Visayas' GDP grew by 5.9 percent from a 9.7 percent decline in 2020.
The region was also the second fastest growing region in the Visayas, and also contributed close to about 10 percent of the total Overseas Filipinos deployed abroad in 2020.
Bacolod City is one of the most competitive cities in the country, ranking 12th out of 33 cities covered.
Negros Occidental also produced about 20,000 graduates in 2020.
Most of the graduates have degrees in Education (25 percent), Business and Accounting (18 percent) and Information Technology (15 percent).
This makes Negros Occidental an ideal hub for business process operations given its skilled workforce, Bondoc also cited.
Furthermore, Metro Manila comprised 81 percent of total office deals in 2021 while 19 percent are from provincial transactions.
Among the provinces with most office transactions include Cebu with 39,000 square meters; Iloilo - 23,000 square meters; Pampanga - 11,000 square meters; Laguna and Davao - 10,000 square meters each.
As of end of 2021, Bacolod's total office stock reached 150,000 square meters behind Cebu with 1.3 million square meters, Davao with 350,000 square meters, and Iloilo with 200,000 square meters.
Bacolod has a lot of catching up to do, but its competitiveness as an ICT hub should lure more developers to invest in the city, he pointed out.
Lawyer Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chairman of the board of Bnefit, cited the model of ICT investors in building digital hubs or microsites closer to the residences of their workers as a good alternative strategy for lack of office spaces.
Batapa-Sigue said these microsites will benefit cities outside Bacolod which qualify as locations based on talent, business environment and infrastructure.
One international locator in Bacolod, Teleperformance, already embraced the microsites model to ensure that operations are not disrupted even as the Philippine economy starts to open.
Among the attendees was incoming Kabankalan City Vice Mayor Miguel Zayco who cited the presence of several colleges in the city producing a good number of graduates.
Zayco, along with incoming Bacolod City councilors Vladimir Gonzales and Jason Villarosa, and representatives from cities of Cadiz, San Carlos, and Sipalay also expressed willingness to collaborate with Bnefit led by current president Hajee Birth Aquino and other partners in the academe and industry to ensure that digitally enabled jobs continue to flow into the province.
In terms of vacancy, meanwhile, Iloilo recorded the lowest vacancy rate at about seven percent in 2021.
Bacolod’s vacancy rate reached 16 percent while Davao and Cebu have 21 and 25 percent, respectively.
In 2021, Bacolod has about 5,000 square meters of available Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza)-registered office spaces.
Iloilo has about 8,000 square meters of Peza office space, Davao with 55,000 square meters, and Cebu with 295,000 square meters.
Bondoc says it will be interesting to see if Peza space will continue to play a crucial role in BPO firms' investment and expansion plans especially in the advent of work-from-home arrangements.
Colliers expects the delivery of about 30,000 square meters of new office supply in Bacolod from 2022 to 2024.
It follows Cebu with 206,000 square meters and Iloilo with 33,000 square meters of upcoming office supply. (PR)