Filinvest REIT Corp., the flagship commercial real estate company of the Filinvest Group, said Wednesday it signed new leases for roughly 10,300 square meters of office space in the first quarter.
FILRT president and chief executive Maricel Brion-Lirio said during the company’s virtual annual stockholders meeting the new leases were more than double those it signed in the whole of 2022.
“We are happy to note that tenants are starting to come back and pushing forward with their expansion plans,” said Brion-Lirio.
“We are hopeful that this is a sign of reversal from the challenge we faced last year due to the implementation of hybrid work set-ups in PEZA special economic zones like our Northgate Cyberzone property in Alabang,” she said.
FILRT and the office leasing segment experienced changes due to the evolving global workplace environment as remote work has become more prevalent.
The company said of the 10,300 sq. m. of new leases, about 56 percent were existing multinational business process outsourcing clients of FILRT who needed additional space for expansion.
Existing traditional tenants also took up additional space for expansion, accounting for 24 percent of total.
The balance of 20 percent represented new traditional tenants.
FILRT reported that more than 13,300 sq. m. or 32 percent of the lease expiring in 2023 were already renewed, with the balance due for renewal in the coming months.
It said that aside from continued growth from improvement in occupancy rate and annual rental escalation, it was also banking on the acquisitions to further grow the company.
FILRT has the right of first refusal over the 465,000 sq. m. of office and mall spaces owned by parent firm Filinvest Land Inc.
“Our sponsor FLI is fully committed to grow FILRT’s portfolio with regular asset infusions. We are guided by a clear investment strategy in order to sustain the portfolio expansion and provide a stable and competitive return to investors,” Brion-Lirio said.
FILRT added 29,086 sq. m. of leasable area to its portfolio in 2022 with the acquisition of Crimson Resort and Spa Boracay.