Philippines’ property has been earmarked in a recent report.
Emerging markets that includes Philippines’ property are hot on investors’ agendas. This is according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute named ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate-Asia Pacific’, which looks at a number of factors in order to provide a forecast on real estate investment and trends, plus any other property relating issues and capital markets.
Whilst firm past favourites have included Japan and Australia, there has started to be a shift towards the Philippines, Vietnam and India. Recognising the value and potential in these markets over the traditional core markets, there are still obstacles to overcome in terms of tenant numbers to fill properties, plus the competition to secure land in order for development.
With reference to the Philippines, the report stated that the country, “Continues to appeal to foreign investors, with good growth in just about every sector, especially the office-oriented business process outsourcing (BPO) market.”
Despite the Philippines being hard to access for foreign investment, the core basis of a good market is there thanks to the current state of its economy. The country received substantial remittances from their overseas Filipino workers and there is a very buoyant business process outsourcing market. Having a knock-on effect onto to the property market, there are many buildings that are sold before completion ensuring that values and rents experience a steady upwards movements. Vacancies rates are also generally low too.
Despite being an attractive market for foreign investors to dabble in, many buildings are held as a source of income restricting their invitation into the market as there is little trading potential. With land becoming more scarce creating a housing shortage there will be less opportunity for development. This bodes well for those already in the property game, but could also open the floor up as property owners become keen to cash in on the situation and explains why the Philippines was earmarked by this report.