Filinvest REIT sees signs of turnaround in office segment

MANILA  -Filinvest REIT Corp., the real estate investment trust arm of the Gotianun family’s Filinvest Group, is banking on the return of onsite office work to drive earnings growth this year.

The company announced that for the first quarter of 2023, it finalized new leases and “signed letters of intent” for almost 10,300 square meters (sq m) of office space or double the leases sealed for the past year.

“We are happy to note that tenants are starting to come back and pushing forward with their expansion plans,” Maricel Brion-Lirio, president and CEO of Filinvest REIT, said in a stock exchange filing.

“We are hopeful that this is a sign of reversal from the challenge we faced last year due to the implementation of hybrid work setups in Peza (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) Special Economic Zones like our Northgate Cyberzone property in Alabang,” she added.

The global health crisis forced businesses to embrace the work-from-home (WFH) setup. For some companies, this eventually gave way to hybrid work that allowed a mix of both onsite and WFH.

Filinvest REIT said 56 percent of the take up in the first quarter of 2023 came from existing multinational firms that are expanding their operations.

The remainder came from existing and new businesses, it added.

Filinvest REIT contracts for about 13,300 sq m, equivalent to third of expiring leases this year, have so far been renewed.

The company’s leasing portfolio spans about 300,000 sq m, mainly from its 16 office buildings in Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City, Alabang. The buildings had an average occupancy of 89 percent in 2022, Filinvest REIT said.

The company ended 2022 with a net income of P1.31 billion, down 30 percent, while revenues slipped nearly 6 percent to P3.24 billon, its financial filing with the Philippine Stock Exchange showed. INQ