Property consultancy JLL Philippines yesterday said the exit of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and the shift to hybrid of information technology-business process management would not result to a sizable increase in vacancy rates in the office real estate market.
Janlo Delos Reyes, JLL head of research, in a briefing yesterday also sees some gradual increase in rentals, but may not be in the same levels during the height of the POGOs’ operations in the country.
This and macro economic headwinds will have an impact on developments, according to Delos Reyes.
“Inflation rate, interest rate and exchange rate, all of these are weighing down on the investment market. So what it means for real estate is that there is a higher cost of investment. So we’re seeing borrowing costs increase for developers planning to put up their projects. And what this means is that there might be slowdown in terms of launches, or development or new builds,” Delos Reyes said.
In a related development, Pinoy sa POGO scored the Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines and the Foundation for Economic Freedom, and the Department of Finance, for their “misleading and discriminatory statements dismissing the significant economic contributions of legitimate POGOs and service providers that pay proper taxes and license fees to government.”
The group said business organizations advocating for the closure of POGOs due to “alleged social costs” are “elitists and anti-poor.”
Karen Santa Cruz, one of the officers of the POGO workers’ association, said rich businessmen don’t care about the poor who will lose their jobs.
Santa Cruz said the real social cost is massive unemployment if government shuts down POGOs and their service providers that employ thousands of Filipinos as encoders, dealers, housekeeping staff, drivers, cooks and waiters.
Concerned for the welfare of their members, Pinoy sa POGO appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to help Filipino POGO workers.
Pinoy sa POGO also criticized the business groups and some lawmakers for alleged “double standard” in dealing with online gaming.
“Their hearts bleed for Chinese mainlanders who gamble in POGOs but are strangely silent with regards the proliferation of local text and online gaming scams that lure Filipinos, including the youth, to gamble,” the group said. – Irma Isip and Angela Celis
