Infrastructure projects that will efficiently allow commuters to travel more easily around the country are among the factors seen as drivers of the real property sector this 2026.

In a briefing on Wednesday, Dino Palanca, Director of Research and Marketing of real estate services company KMC Savills, said existing stock in the residential segment has gone down after property developers have trained their eyes on other segments and the market after an oversupply in the past.

He said residential property developments continue to rise in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal as well as in Pampanga, even if the latter is already a bit far from Metro Manila.

“The drivers are evident. We’re grateful that the government also has stepped in to play in building infrastructure projects and interconnecting businesses altogether. What this does is, apart from making ease of travel and business, it makes it more convenient, is also connects us regionally to, I guess, some more direct range areas of opportunity,” he said.

In terms of the office market, John Corpus, Executive Director for Tenant Representation, said healthcare, financial technology, information technology, game development and robotics segment of the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) sector is what drives office space demand.

For retail spaces, businesses have reverted to large format operations such as big supermarkets after the small format businesses like food carts and smaller store branches did not grow as fast as expected, said Alex Samuel, Director for Consultancy and Valuation.

“So, that said, traditional formats that have a larger type of scale are more stable for the retailers,” he said.

Warehousing, logistics hubs and distribution centers are also boosting the retail spaces segment, according to Ninoy Tea, Executive Director for Investment Services.

“We’ve seen the growth of logistics hubs exponentially. We feel that it will continue to grow in the next five to 10 years,” he said.

For the hospitality segment, hotels and accommodation facilities in Subic in the province of Zambales have great opportunities due to the military exercises, and in Bohol.

In terms of government policies that will further bolster investors’ confidence to place their funds in the domestic real estate market, KMC Savills executives cited the need to lift the moratorium on putting up new economic zones in Metro Manila that will be accredited by Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the need to provide incentives for tenants that support the government’s green and sustainable initiative, and the need to increase leeway on foreign ownership to help the manufacturing sector. (PNA)