The future of PH real estate

There are silver linings—bright spots that helped keep the industry afloat and resilient since the pandemic struck early last year

It has been a tumultuous 20 months for the Philippine real estate industry. As the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns continue to take a heavy toll on economies, creating a landscape that remains challenging and uncertain even until today, real estate players had to quickly rethink, retool and recalibrate their strategies to adapt with the sweeping, unprecedented changes that have upended the industry since last year.

It has been a tough balancing act: stringent restrictions hampered all movements, projects, and sales activities, prompting developers to explore for more effective ways to reach out to their customers to sustain sales, while managing employees most of whom were forced to work from home due to the pandemic. At the same time, health and safety considerations have become priorities, which meant that developers needed to set in place the government-mandated protocols within their offices and project sites while ensuring that their future projects will be suited to what is now called as the new normal. And almost two years into this pandemic, property developers have managed to adapt.

It’s still too early to tell by this time if the real estate industry is truly on its way to bouncing back better from this crisis, as the future landscape remains uncertain and fluid owing to possible new developments concerning the pandemic.

But there’s reason to believe in the guarded optimism underpinning the forecasts of some of the country’s top consultancy firms.

While the industry, as with the rest of the country, has not yet recovered from the pandemic slump, some subsectors have begun showing encouraging signs of gradual rebound. There are also silver linings— bright spots that helped keep the industry afloat and resilient since the pandemic struck early last year.

Inquirer Property polled property consultancy firms to get their insights and fearless forecasts about the Philippine real estate industry in 2022 and beyond the pandemic.