A shift in the Philippines’ real estate industry and the Chinese are making moves.
There was a bit of a shake-up in the Philippines this week. Rick Santos who has led the CBRE Philippine team for the last 23 years announced that as of the new year they will join real estate firm Knight Frank LLP. Deciding not to renew the franchise with CBRE, Santos team of 1,200 employees will form Santos Knight Frank in a collaboration with Knight Frank in London.
Santos commented, “I am delighted to announce our partnership with Knight Frank and my entire team is excited to extend our market-leading position and continue to drive growth in the Philippine real estate sector”.
Continuing to work with the same clients, Santos recognised Knight Frank’s forward approach towards real estate in the Philippines and felt that their business model fits the bill. Santos expressed that there is a huge amount of scope in the market, and that the economic growth in the country will drive demand in the real estate sector. This is at a time where Chinese investors have started to make an invested interest in the Philippines property market.
“There is an extremely bullish interest coming from the Chinese group. We’ve met recently with a delegation from China. Investors from mainland China are definitely seriously considering the Philippines in their investments options,” said Santos.
Whilst this isn’t the first time that the Chinese have stepped into the market, they are now starting to be serious players ready to make a move. CBRE anticipate that industrial and residential developments will lead the growth for the following year. Manufacturing and construction firms will consider economic zones with the residential market continuing to grow fast beyond Cebu, Bacolod and Iloilo. The retail market has attracted a international brands fuelling occupancy rates to an expected 98 percent, an increase of 8 percent since 2015.
