BPO sector remains a bright spot for PH – CBRE
ABS CBN.com
17 January 2013
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/17/13/bpo-sector-remains-bright-spot-ph-cbre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p_epodsnlmU
Real estate advisory firm CBRE says the Philippines has strong fundamentals to sustain its growth in the next five years.
CBRE chairman Rick Santos says the Philippines will remain a lifeboat for the European and US economies especially when it comes to outsourcing products and services.
In an interview on Mornings@ANC, Santos said he expects the business process outsourcing sector to remain a bright spot and to drive demand for real estate.
“This is a great time for the Philippines. This is the best market I’ve ever seen in last 20 years and it’s driven a lot by demand from office sector, call centers, BPOs, shared services companies that outsource their work here. We see that sector being a bright spot for 2013,” he said.
“From a macro perspective, we’re seeing the Philippines being second to China in terms of GDP growth. Last year, the Philippines was one of the best performing markets in Asia… Also from an investment standpoint, we’re just one notch away from investment grade. So we’re seeing a lot more institutional investors coming in, looking at the Philippines from a real estate point of view, equity investment point of view.”
Santos says a wide range of financing schemes is also making the country a nation of owners when it comes to real estate.
He adds with the advent of gaming in the country the hotel and leisure sector will continue to pick up bringing in more investors and generate more jobs.
“The hotel and leisure sector is picking up and that’s behind advent of gaming, with all these casinos coming in, which will bring in more investors. We see in 5 year’s time, we see the Philippines challenging places like Macau, Las Vegas in the gaming sector,” he said.
However, Santos cites infrastructure as crucial to sustaining the economic growth.
“I think the challenge will be infrastructure, just making sure that infrastructure keeps up with demand in terms of road, rail and airports, etc. I think as long as we keep investing in infrastructure to make sure the phenomenal success of the Philippines has had in property side, I think that growth is sustainable,” he said.
