COVID-19 has brought about a change in the movement and priorities of property users.. With office space and residential condominiums most affected, what are the winners brought about by the pandemic?
Here are 7 Property Trends to look out for in 2021.
Increasing Demand for In-City Warehouses
With the pandemic making online shopping more of a norm than an exception, we see converted old houses and warehouse turned into storage and pick up points for delivery riders like GRAB and Lalamove. Some criteria popular for In-City warehouse are sturdy structure, rain and weatherproof storage, easy motorcycle parking and pickup, a large volume of clear space, stay in utilities like rooms and bathroom for staff are a plus.
Hub and Spoke Model Office Structure
We heard first of the hub and spoke model in airports where large planes will bring their passengers into a central terminal, then eventually farmed out to smaller cities in smaller airplanes. We see a trend where companies are now opening smaller offices in different areas of the city to accommodate their human resource and lessen travel time.We see a hybrid work from home model as a new normal moving into the future using video conferencing more on less critical meetings.
Cloud Kitchens
A cloud kitchen is a delivery-only restaurant without a physical dining room, as opposed to a normal restaurant. Cloud kitchens operate by centralizing food processing facilities where food retailers can rent a room to prepare and cook food solely for distribution and takeout services. Customers order through apps like Food Panda or Grab Food and the order is delivered by motorcycle or bike riders. If you have a vacant underutilized property, explore setting up your property to serve this shift in the restaurant industry.
Dark Stores
“Dark Stores” are retail companies that no longer have a physical store in a prime commercial area. These are companies birthed on the internet and instead of physical mall space, they have enticing and well-designed websites that can automatically sell you their product and fulfill your orders 24/7 with minimal human interaction. Some are automatic and therefore do not need lighting, thus the term. Long after the recent pandemic, dark shops will play an important part in shopping moving into the future.
Move to the Suburbs
With Zoom online meetings becoming widely accepted as a legit way of meeting and doing presentations, many people have now opened their eyes to buying more affordable properties and moving outside of the expensive central business district. With work from home and doing business at home now acceptable, we see cities outside Manila like Cavite, Tagaytay, Pampanga, Batangas, or Baguio now being considered as primary home locations.
Work from Anywhere
Work from the beach, work from a hotel, work from the province is now an option, one does not need to be in an office building to be credible. Working from anywhere will now be the new normal, even as far as servicing a global client in the USA, Australia, Europe without the need to rent an office space. Properties by the sea or with cool temperatures by the mountains will be a preferred choice, because why not? If you can work anywhere, then you might as well work with the sand scraping your toes or with the cool, clean and fresh mountainous air.
Rise in Townhouses
With quarantine requiring families to stay inside their homes, residents from condominiums are now looking for alternative housing products that are not too pricey, yet have more space and rooms to move about. Townhouses sit in between tight condo spaces and expensive house & lot options. Homebuyers appreciate the open spaces, extra room, gated community and sports amenities that townhouse development offers. Townhouses in the Philippines starts at a low of 5million pesos for starter houses in less prime areas up to P80million Pesos for high-end luxury townhomes in expensive addresses.
Carl Dy shares his 20 years of experience in real estate through his videos and articles. He is an architect by education and spent the 1st decade of his work life with Philippines’ biggest developer Ayala Land Inc. He is a real estate management graduate of the Harvard Business School. You can speak to Carl Dy through his 1 hour private coaching sessions. Connect with him thru www.facebook.com/
