Metro Manila – Information technology and business process management companies remain a major driver of office space demand in the Philippines even in the months ahead, latest figures from Leechiu Property Consultants show.
In a briefing on Monday, the consultancy firm reported 124,000 square meters of office demand for the first quarter – 39,000 sq.m. or 31% of which came from IT-BPM firms. While the Omicron variant-driven surge in cases pulled overall demand down by 23% quarter-on-quarter, this decline is milder than the ones during the first quarter of 2020, where the country first went under lockdown, and the second quarter of 2021 with a Delta variant-driven surge bringing back tighter restrictions.
LPC projects 358,000 sq.m. of live requirements in the next six months, higher than what was observed in all quarters last year. Of this number, IT-BPM firms are seen to account for 195,000 sq.m. or 55%. The government has bucked pleas from some BPM companies to extend the deadline for returning to in-person work beyond this month, noting that
The sector has represented 31% of overall demand in the first quarter of 2022, it adds.