BPOS, POGOS FACE HEADWINDS
BUSINESS process outsourcing (BPO) firms and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) might find it difficult to expand thier operations due to lack of economic zones and the coronavirus travel ban, Colliers International Philippines said.
Colliers Senior Research Manager Joey Roi Bondoc, in a briefing on Friday in Makati City, said BPO clients and POGOs were seen to continue driving the office market this year, but warned of the challenges both sectors would face.
The outsourcing firms, for example, lack Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA)-approved spaces to occupy, Bondoc said, noting that 490,000 square meters (sqm) out of the 564,600 sqm of available lands in Metro Manila are already pre-leased.
The remaining 74,600 sqm “could be taken in a single year,” the researcher said.
“The government should take a more aggressive stance in approving projects outside of Metro Manila,” he said, noting that this would also be in line with the administration’s vision of spurring economic activities in the countryside.
So far, Cebu, Iloilo, Metro Clark and Bacolod have available PEZA spaces of 95,000 sqm, 96,000 sqm, 77,000 sqm and 18,000 sqm, respectively.
BPOs have occupied a total office space of 1.77 million sqm since 2016, or an average of 39 percent of total transactions.
For POGOs, Bondoc said that their operations might be hampered as a travel ban for passengers coming from China was imposed as a safety precaution amid the 2019-novel Coronavirus outbreak.
He said that this would also hinder Chinese employees, who usually operate POGOs, from working here.
The vacancy rate could shoot up as high as 7.6 percent should the outbreak totally prevent POGOs from taking up office space this year, Bondoc said.
The Colliers researcher, meanwhile, clarified that it was not an alarming rate because it was still below 10 percent.
At the same time, Bondoc said the Makati City government recently ordered a moratorium on POGO license issuance which has also affected the office takeup.
Metro Manila office stock rose by 8 percent to 11.9 million sqm year-on-year, the bulk of which are in the Makati Central Business District and Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. TYRONE C. PIAD