Megaworld Premier Offices, the office leasing arm of township developer Megaworld Corporation, reported a 12 percent growth in office lease take-up in nine months even amid the pandemic restrictions imposed during the period.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Megaworld said office take-ups improved to 214,000 square meters during the first three quarters of 2021 from 191,000 square meters achieved during the same period last year.

It added that, 36 percent of these leases were new deals mostly in Uptown Bonifacio, McKinley Hill, Southwoods City, and Davao Park District.

Around 79 percent of these new sign-ups are from the IT-BPM sector (Information Technology and Business Process Management).

Other new lease transactions were also recorded in Eastwood City, McKinley West, and The Mactan Newtown during the period.

The other 64 percent of the leases, on the other hand, were renewals mostly from BPO companies in Eastwood City, Uptown Bonifacio, McKinley West, McKinley Hill, and Iloilo Business Park.

“It is exciting to note that several tenants opted to retain their spaces, and even expanded during the pandemic,” said Megaworld Premier Offices First Vice President Roland Tiongson.

He added that, “The demand still remains despite earlier speculations that the work-from-home arrangements will lead to massive vacancies.”

“In Iloilo Business Park, for example, US-based BPO company Nearsol, renewed its almost 3,000 square meters of office space in Three Techno Place, but at the same time, took new spaces of around 2,000 square meters in the nearby Two Fintech Place,” he disclosed.

Megworld said that, in Southwoods City in Biñan, Laguna, another US-based BPO company Valor Global, Inc., took three floors of Southwoods BPO Tower 1 covering almost 8,000 square meters.

At the same time, it also took another three floors of One Campus Place in McKinley Hill covering almost 6,400 square meters.

“With the eased restrictions and the re-opening of our borders for international travelers, we are optimistic that we will be able to achieve a better full-year performance of our office leasing business this year,” said Tiongson.

Within the next 10 years, Megaworld is building more office towers in new townships including The Upper East in Bacolod City; Maple Grove in General Trias, Cavite; Capital Town in San Fernando, Pampanga; and Northwin Global City in Marilao-Bocaue, Bulacan.