Property consultant JLL Philippines said demand for data backbone in the country is driving the growth of data centers south of Metro Manila, benefitting the area’s real estate market.
Currently a number of projects are in the pipeline in the area, including YCO Cloud One by JJYnchausti Ventures and Cloud Centers in Batangas; Vitro Sta Rosa by ePLDT) in Laguna; Flow Digital by the Ayala Group and FLOW in Laguna and; Evolution DC by Megawide Construction Corp. and Evolution DC Cavite.
These are expected to complement the existing data centers of Globe Telecom’s CAV1 in Cavite; TIMCORP’s Carmona site in Cavite, and NARRA1 by Threadborne Group and Digital Edge in Laguna.
Janlo de los Reyes, JLL Philippines research and strategic consulting head, noted the “heightened need for strong data infrastructure to support the country’s data consumption” as Filipinos spend an average of 9 hours and 14 minutes using the internet daily, much higher compared to the global average of 6 hours and 37 minutes, citing the Digital 2023 report by Kepios and We Are Social.
JLL noted that access to utilities is already in place in South Luzon for further growth of data centers as it hosts the largest number of industrial parks.
“Access to power is critical since data centers need strong and redundant power supply to operate with little to no downtime. Additionally, water supply and sewage are also necessary for data centers’ cooling systems,” said Carl Dizon, JLL Philippines capital markets senior analyst.
Land prices in South Luzon also tend to be more economically viable than in Metro Manila, making investment for the centers in the area suitable.
“The urbanization of Metro Manila pushes land prices higher, driving industrial zones out of the capital. Compared to Metro Manila, cities and municipalities in South Luzon are still under development where land values are still financially viable for industrial uses — including data center operations,” said Dizon.
