Filinvest REIT Corp., the real estate investment trust of the Gotianun-led Filinvest group, on Wednesday bared sealing new leases on 10,300 square meters of property in the first three months this year as its office renting business recovers.
Maricel Brion-Lirio, company president and CEO, said this was more than double the new leases the company signed in 2022.
“The tenants that signed are a mix of multinational BPO (business process outsourcing) and traditional companies,” Lirio said at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.
“We are happy to note that tenants are starting to come back and pushing forward with their expansion plans. We are hopeful that this is a sign of reversal from the challenge we faced last year due to the implementation of hybrid word setups in PEZA special economic zones like our North Gate Cyberzone property in Alabang,” Lirio said.
This adds to the 5,087 square meters in new leases Filinvest REIT sealed last year and the 22,891 square meters in renewed leases this year. Ninety-six percent of the leases were to expire this year, according to Lirio.
“Weighted average lease expiry or whale is 6.9 years and forecasted to increase in 2023 as new leases and renewals for the year set in,” Lirio told shareholders at its annual meeting.
Lirio said the enterprise is focused on diversifying its portfolio to boost dividends for shareholders and boosting the revenue flow of existing prime office assets.
“We expect our portfolio to benefit from intrinsic and organic growth as building occupancy improves,” she said.
Lirio noted contractual escalation terms were built into 90 percent of Filinvest REIT’s office leases averaging 5 percent per annum.
“Our inorganic growth potential is backed by the right of first refusal that sponsor Filinvest Land Inc. has granted to Filinvest REIT. This covers all significant commercial properties owned by FLI and its wholly owned subsidiaries.
FLI owns 465,000 square meters of office and leasable areas in the central business districts that are potential acquisitions for Filinvest REIT,” she said.
The company rounded 2022 with profits of P1.31 billion and rental and other revenues of another P3.24 billion. Filinvest REIT posted an average occupancy rate of 89 percent last year.
