Demand for office space seen to continue rising

REGUS, a global provider of “flexible workspace,” is eyeing to open more business centers outside Metro Manila this year.

This month, Regus is taking over the serviced office space at Ascott in Makati City, with plans to more than triple the size of the previous business center on the seventh floor, country manager Lars Wittig told reporters on Thursday.

Regus will also open a new center at McKinley Hill in Bonifacio Global City next month, Wittig said.

To date, there are 22 Regus centers in the Philippines—20 in Metro Manila, one in Clark, and one in Cebu.

Eight business centers were opened last year—the most number opened in a year.

“There’s no reason our openings will slow down this year; it cannot be less [than the eight opened last year]. I don’t see growth slowing down as demand for office space continues to increase,” Wittig said when asked how many centers would be opened this year.

Wittig nonetheless said Regus already had a “substantial” network in Metro Manila, hence it would embark on a more aggressive expansion outside the National Capital Region.

He said the company would open more offices outside Metro Manila this year, but declined to say how many.

Among the tier 2 cities where Regus is eyeing to set up shop are Baguio, Naga and Olongapo as well as the Subic Freeport area in Luzon; Bacolod, Iloilo and elsewhere in Cebu province in the Visayas, and the cities of Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, General Santos and Zamboanga in Mindanao, Wittig said.

The executive said Regus’ business centers in the country got “filled much faster than global standard,” with occupancy at 91 percent in mature centers.

He said top clients remained IT firms, companies offering general business services, as well as legal, media and marketing firms.

Globally, Luxembourg-based Regus has about 3,000 business centers in more than 100 countries where it provides fully serviced workspace to 2.1 million customers.