Cebu office market now stable due to IT-BPMs — JLL Philippines
The office market in Cebu is now stable thanks to the growing demand from the local Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry.
According to a real estate services firm JLL Philippines report, IT-BPMs accounted for 67.3% of the leasing activity in the province for the first half of 2022.
Likewise, IT-BPM firms also accounted for 4,600 square meters (sq.m.) of move-ins in Cebu IT Park and 4,300 sq.m.of move-ins in Cebu Business Park.
JLL Philippines Head of Research and Strategic Consulting Janlo de los Reyes said, “We saw the improvement from Cebu IT Park while Cebu Business Park registered an uptick” from January to June.
On the other hand, office pull-outs dropped by 79.25% during H1 2022, with Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies contributing only 800 sq.m.
The vacancy rate also eased to around 21.9%, from a peak of 23.7% in the fourth quarter of 2021.
However, de los Reyes noted a “weak precommitment” in Metro Cebu, with most of the upcoming office stock still vacant.
Office rentals will likely remain soft “owing to supply pressure from the sizeable volume of unoccupied future stock,” he added.
