FILRT targets to boost occupancy rate to 95%

MANILA, Philippines —  Filinvest REIT Corp. (FILRT), the listed real estate investment trust of the Filinvest Group, targets to beef up significantly the occupancy rate of its office leasing assets next year.

FILRT president and CEO Maricel Brion-Lirio said the company aims to reach an occupancy of 95 percent before 2026 driven by tenant diversification.

“We remain focused on improving occupancy. FILRT aims for 95 percent occupancy rate before 2026. To achieve this, we are broadening our focus to a wider tenant base coming from a predominantly BPO (business process outsourcing) mix,” Brion-Lirio said.

“We have repositioned and expanded our leasing organization, including channel marketing efforts to enable the shift in tenant mix,” she said.

Brion-Lirio said the company has also repurposed and redesigned its spaces to accommodate different client types, including the introduction of co-working spaces.

FILRT’s occupancy rate as of end-September stood at 83 percent, the same level as of end-2023.

“We have been actively rebuilding our portfolio’s occupancy and diversifying our tenant base. We are focused on signing more new tenants,” Brion-Lirio said.

“The work from home or hybrid setup has changed demand for office spaces, not only in the country, but globally as well. So this has led to downsizing and pretermination of some contracts until the first quarter this year. We believe we have already surpassed the bottom in terms of occupancy and we are now executing initiatives to further improve the occupancy of our portfolio,” she said.

According to Brion-Lirio, the company is also looking forward for the full implementation of the CREATE MORE law.

“This program will potentially increase the return to on site work from 70 percent work from home and 30 work in the office now to just 50:50. We are also looking forward to an increased demand coming from this CREATE MORE,” she said.

Aside from boosting occupancy rate, Brion-Lirio said FILRT is also aiming to double its current gross leasable area (GLA) and diversify its assets through asset infusions from sponsors Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) and parent firm Filinvest Development Corp.

“FILRT targets to double its current GLA of 330,00 by acquiring dividend accretive assets in the next three years, subject to prevailing market conditions,” Brion-Lirio said.

“There’s about 720,000 square meters of potential asset infusion from FLI and the broader Filinvest Group. These are Grade A office buildings, retail assets under the Filinvest malls and townships portfolio and hotels under the Crimson and Quest brands in key tourist destinations of the country,” she said.

FILRT, she added, is also open to infusions of commercial assets from third parties outside of the Filinvest Group granted that the assets would pass assessment and its investment criteria.