Metro office vacancy rate tipped to dip to 18.8% in ʼ24

The office vacancy rate in Metro Manila is expected to ease to 18.8 percent this year from 19.4 percent in 2023, with the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry continuing to drive the uptake.

According to real estate advisory firm CBRE, the office market vacancy rate in Metro Manila should further decline to 5.4 percent by 2027 as the property sector continues to regain ground lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and buyers mop up excess inventory.

Leading industry recovery is the increase in the BPO sector’s full-time employees by 8.5 percent by 2027.

The BPO sector is estimated to account for 65 percent of the market.

Vacated space

The CBRE said the optimistic projection was also based on the assumption that annual vacated space will not exceed 200,000 square meters (sq m).

“Every quarter, you see some companies are still adjusting their space take-up because they’re dealing with the realities of how their employees are reacting to certain policies that they institute,” CBRE’s country head for advisory and asset services Jie Espinosa told reporters last week.

According to CBRE, there are 1.72 million sq m of office space available in Metro Manila.

Available space

Most of the available office space is located in the Bay area, where 362,500 sq m—or about 21 percent of the total—are currently available.

Meanwhile, Alabang had the least available space at 233,400 sq m or 13.6 percent of the total, followed by Fort Bonifacio with 243,900 sq m (14.2 percent), Ortigas with 259,500 sq m (15.1 percent), Makati with 290,200 sq m (16.9 percent) and Quezon City with 330,7000 sq m (19.2 percent). INQ