You’ve got to love BPOs.
In Quezon City at least, new office projects taken over by BPOs accounted for 24 per cent of office supply take-up and pre-commitments in 2014. Quezon City took up a bigger share of the pie compared to the more prominent business districts of Bonifacio Global City (BGC) at 22 per cent, and Makati at 18 per cent, according to a study by the property services firm JLL. Considered by BPOs as the largest source of talent in Metro Manila, Quezon City likewise benefited with four out of the 10 largest BPO transactions in 2014, a distinction shared with BGC.
Take the Panorama Technocenter along EDSA in Quezon City. Its marketing agency recently expressed confidence to The Standard that the18-storey office tower, with gross leasable area of 32,857 sqm., will be taken up quickly a year before it’s mid-2016 completion date.
Kiss of death
heart out.”
Just a decade ago, its proximity to Munoz Market and its transport hubs was considered a “kiss of death” by prospective office lessors. But lo and behold : in the current market environment dominated by BPOs, now competing for talent and unmindful of daytime traffic, the building’s accessibility to a convergence center, transport lines and well-populated mid-income neighbourhoods, has become its key strength.
Said Sheila Lobien, JLL project leasing head : “The site selection and take-up by BPOs for office space is largely driven by locations that are most accessible to their employees. In recent years, this has really changed the office leasing landscape.”
Lobien observed that developers with property in Quezon City “cannot seem to build projects fast enough for the market.” She pointed to JLL studies that illustrate high demand for offices in Quezon City which has driven rental rates up by as much as 30 per cent in 2014, “yet still more affordable than BGC and Makati City.”
Buildings constructed with the technical requirements of BPOs, as well as large floor plates and which enable the efficient ingress and egress of employees, are the most prized. Panorama Technocenter, for example, offers a typical floor plate of over 2,400 sqm. and will have 10 high-speed elevators that can ferry hundreds of BPO employees from the ground floor to their offices, and from their work area to the main exit in minutes.
The complex is likewise considered a green building, featuring double-glazed glass windows, which insulate heat from outside, and LED lighting. Both features contribute to higher energy efficiency and cost savings. These are on top of its access to quality talent pools via LRT line 1 Roosevelt station, and an MRT station just 100 meters away.
Business, government offices getting into the act
Panorama Technocenter broke ground on the project last February 2015, targeting a mid-2016 completion date when few other Quezon City office projects will be coming on-stream. Lobien said that BPO demand for office space across the metropolis is projected to remain strong in the mid-term. “For a decade now, supply has consistently been taken up by office occupiers, with rents remaining relatively stable over-all.”
BPOs aren’t the only drivers for this office space boom in Quezon City. Many traditional businesses and government offices that have expanded along with the economy, are also seeking to upgrade their office space. Lobien said Panorama Technocenter hopes to attract the manufacturing industry in nearby Novaliches to set up their headquarters in the building as well.
Demand for efficient office space in strategic Quezon City locations has never reached this level in the last two decades, and is likely to further strengthen in the mid-term, she said.
