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Real estate industry bullish, driven by BPO demand for office space

By Jesus F. Llanto, Abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak | 12/04/2008 9:02 PM

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Try to visit Makati, Ortigas Center and other locations where a number of outsourcing firms are located and chances are you may find the following: convenience stores and restaurants are open for 24 hours, public utility vehicles are plying their routes even during the ungodly hours and construction of buildings is ongoing.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is considered as one of the sunshine industries in the country, has created ripple effects on the economy and  on businesses.

Apart from providing 300,000 direct jobs for Filipinos and generating US$4.9 billion revenues in 2007, it has improved the local economy by creating a new segment of the population, composed of BPO workers in their 20s, with high disposable income, much more than their counterparts in other industries.

Restaurants, coffee shops, convenience stores, and even the public transport system, are now serving BPO workers 24/7 since the nature of their jobs requires them to deal with customers living in different time zones. And this phenomenon has generated additional employment opportunities for Filipinos leaving near the BPO sites.

Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim, chair of the Commission on Information Technology, said in a previous interview with abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak that for every job generated by the BPO industry, there are three indirect jobs created in the indirect services like retail and the transport sector.

One of the sectors that has benefited so much from this growth in outsourcing is the real estate sector, mainly because of the huge demand for office space by the BPO firms. Unlike other businesses that need only two or three units for their operations, BPO companies rent several floors or even an entire building to house their facilities and operations.

The demand for office space by the BPO industry plus the economic slowdown in the United States—where major clients of outsourcing firms are—make experts in the real estate industry bullish over the industry’s growth in the coming months and their optimism is not entirely without a basis.

Benefiting from economic slowdown

BPO industry experts have been optimistic that the recession in the United States and other major economies would mean more and more companies trying to cut down costs by outsourcing more functions to countries with cheaper labor, like India and the Philippines.

“It’s still cheaper to outsource than doing it there in the United States,” said Jojo Uligan, executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) in an interview with abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak. Call centers comprise 74 percent of the US$4.9 billion revenues of the industry in 2007.

Oscar Sanez, chief executive officer of the Business Process Association in the Philippines (BPAP), said that the industry would continue to register double-digit growth and benefit from the slowdown. “Many functions have not yet been outsourced.”

Real estate industry experts are saying that more companies outsourcing to the Philippines result in a continuous demand for office space. Rick Santos, chair of the real estate services and consulting firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Philippines said in a press conference last October that “offshoring and outsourcing will continue to drive the demand in most real estate segments, particularly in offices.”

“Even with the lingering global financial crisis and the recession in the United States,  outsourcing and offshoring remain to be major economic and property industry drivers of the country, Santos said.

“Multinational companies will continue to outsource operations to survive and to thrive,” Santos added.

More office space

In its 3rd quarter briefing, CBRE said the high demand for BPO space makes the office space subsector a leader in the property sector. Retail and hotel/resort subsectors were also identified as leaders while industrial subsector was classified as a laggard.

“Approximately 501, 968 square meters of new office space is scheduled for completion in 2008 across Metro Manila to address the demand from the growing BPO sector as well as the traditional office market,” the report said adding that the figure is higher than last year’s take up of about 300,000 square meters.

The report said that although there is an anticipated slower growth in the call center segment or non-voice sector—the biggest segment in the BPO industry—the non-voice segment of the BPOs will compensate for the decline.

Aside from the effect of the US slowdown, CBRE estimates that demand for office space will get a boost from the Indian companies entering the Philippines. “BPO firms in India are either coming here or they have already have presence here.”

Saturation in Makati

Most BPO firms in the country have established their presence on traditional business locations like the Makati central business district and Ortigas. The concentration of the BPO firms in these areas, however, has resulted in increase in rents.

David Leechiu, country head of the global property consulting firm Jones Lang La Salle Leechiu said that rents in Makati have increased by 20% during the last three years due to huge demand for office space.

Leechiu added that the rents recently fell from P1,200 per square meter per month to P900 per square meter per month and would further go down to P800 per square meter per month by the end of next year.

Despite the decline, Leechiu said the figure is still higher than Quezon City’s P500 per square or even Fort Bonifacio’s rents that range from P600-P800 per square meter per month.

“The challenge for Makati is particularly acute as tenants (particularly BPO occupiers) lured during 2002-2004 by low rents and a lack of alternatives at that time now face substantial rental increases at a time when new accommodation options are available in secondary and suburban locations,” the October 2008 report of the property consulting firm Colliers International Philippines said.

The presence of many BPO firms in the business districts has also resulted in wage inflation as companies try to outdo one another in attracting talent pool by offering high salaries. Newly hired call center agents receive salaries that range from P15,00-P18, 000 a month.

Labor, not rent

The increasing rents and salaries of agents in the outsourcing hubs has resulted in a trend where BPO firms are trying to establish presence in new emerging business districts and in the provinces where wages and rental costs remain low.

Experts, however, said that the main driving force in the growth of the BPO industry and eventually of real estate  in the provinces is the actually not the cost of rents in Makati and Ortigas business districts but the company’s need to tap additional supply of labor.

The BPO industry is targeting a total of 1 million employees in 2010 but companies have been complaining of high attrition rates and low recruitment yield due to lack of applicants that are proficient in English.

Emerging business districts

Emerging business districts in Metro Manila are expected to benefit from the BPO firms that are planning to locate outside these outsourcing hubs.

Trent Frankum, general manager of CBRE Philippines, said in a press conference last October that while rents in the central business districts would stabilize, BPO firms will continue to move to new low-cost and growth areas.

“Some BPO companies will move out of Grade A high-rise buildings into new IT buildings in alternative business districts due to cost,” Frankum said.

Frankum said that among the new growth areas in Metro Manila are the UP North and Science and Technology Park and Eastwood in Quezon City, Pioneer Center in Mandaluyong, Bay City Park in Pasay, Northgate Cyberzone in Alabang and Fort Bonifacio.

Fort Bonifacio: Emerging

Leechiu said that Fort Bonifacio is on top of the list of BPO firms which want to locate or relocate because of its cost, infrastructure and available talent pool.

“It can attract the labor market that Makati attracts and it has the same but better infrastructure than Makati,” Leechiu told abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak. Investors are also eyeing Fort Bonifacio, he added, because it is not as congested as Makati.

Leechiu added that Fort Bonifacio is a preferred destination for relocation of some Makati-based companies looking for cheaper rental rates because of its proximity.

“Companies which will leave Makati will not go to Ortigas or Pioneer [in Mandaluyong] because moving too far will disrupt their operations,” he said. “If they will move out of Makati and go to these locations, their employees may leave them and that’s a big cost to them.”

Challenges for new locations

Emerging business districts and new growth areas identified by as the “next wave locations” for the BPO, however, are facing a lot of tasks and challenges to be able to attract investments and spur development of their real estate sector.

Frankum said infrastructure must be in place in these locations to become an attractive site for BPO expansion.

Towns and cities identified as “next-wave” outsourcing locations, said Leechiu, must implement policies that would improve business climate like granting of fiscal incentives and creation of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) sites.

Leechiu said another challenge, particularly among the cities outside Metro Manila, is  convincing the landlord that if they build the space the tenants would come. “There is no real estate in the provinces.”