Property consultant Colliers International said the country’s logistics sector continues to be resilient amid the pressure imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ieyo de Guzman, deputy managing director for capital markets and investment services at Colliers Philippines, said the demand for logistics has increased due to the pandemic and lockdown.
Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that in the first quarter of the year, about 37 percent of foreign investment pledges are channeled into transportation and storage.
The PSA data also indicate while aggregate committed foreign investments are down 36 percent, about 34 percent of investments pledged for the period will finance manufacturing investments and bulk of these are located in the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas area.
“These projects, once they materialize, are likely to support the growth of manufacturing investments in major industrial parks in Cavite-Laguna-Batangas as well as Bataan-Pampanga corridors,” said de Guzman.
“The logistics sector showed resiliency during the pandemic due to the surge of demand from e-retail logistics, fulfillment hub and on demand delivery sectors for logistics warehouses and spaces. The movement of medical, consumer, households and food products have seen a high traffic during public lockdown. In the office sector the pandemic also compelled Metro Manila centric occupiers to consider expanding in areas outside the capital region such as Cebu, Davao, Iloilo and Clark, Pampanga,” she added.
The Philippines’ experience highlights Colliers’ Asia Pacific Market Snapshot report for the second quarter which said large-scale commercial and industrial transactions in multiple markets helped offset weakness in some other sectors.
The report examines the previous quarter’s property market performance in 19 Asia Pacific markets and provides forecasts for the current and upcoming quarters.
Colliers said the industrials sector, both logistics and technology centers, will continue to appeal to investors given the strong uptake of e-commerce and accelerated digi
