The exodus of the Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in the country has affected the office and condominium property markets the past two years and demand is in trickles.
New POGO deals are almost non-existent, according to Colliers Philippines.
Joey Bondoc, associate director for research at Colliers Philippines, said the company recorded 26,800 square meters (sq.m.)of office space deals from POGOs serving the Southeast Asian market as of the second quarter of the year.
Thought this is a marked improvement from the 4,900 sq.m. new office transactions from this sector Colliers recorded in the entire 2021, Bondoc said “we’ve yet to see substantial deals from Chinese POGOs that dominated the market from 2017 to 2019.”
In his report, Bondoc said at the height of POGO demand in Metro Manila, the offshore gaming sector occupied an estimated 1.3 million sq.m. of office space, representing about 11 percent of total leasable space in the capital region.
But this whittled down to 677,000 sq.m. as of the second quarter of 2022, or 5 percent of total leasable space in the capital region.
Colliers said the office space take-up by POGOs between 2017 and 2019 was complemented by a brisk activity in the Metro Manila pre-selling condominium market, resulting in aggressive completion of units in the Bay Area.
Colliers said the record-high take-up of 57,000 pre-selling condominium units in 2018 can partly be attributed to POGOs.
From 2017 to 2019, Colliers recorded the delivery of 13,600 units in the Bay Area, covering about 35 percent of new completion during the period. This pace of construction also resulted in the Bay Area overtaking Makati CBD 2013 to 2021 as the second largest residential hub in Metro Manila. – Irma Isip
