Robinsons Land bares plans to create, list REIT company

CEBU, Philippines —  The Robinsons Land Inc. (RLC) announced its plan to enlist the company into Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), especially its mature office assets.

According to RLC president and chief executive officer Frederick Go, the company is looking to inject its mature office assets into an REIT Company this year 2021.

He also bared that the company also intends to publicly list the new REIT Co. within the year, subject to SEC and PSE requirements and other government regulatory approvals.

Currently, the Company has 25 office buildings with total net leasable area of over 600,000 sqm.

In a property briefing held recently, real estate consultancy firm JLL, affirmed that the Philippine’s office segment is seen to get a boost despite the effects of pandemic, following approval of the revised guidelines REIT in the Philippines.

According to JLL Philippines, the office segment is the most attractive asset class going forward.

JLL believes that REITs are one of the country’s future bright spots and will play an important role in jumpstarting the economy from the adverse effects of the pandemic and will promote growth in the real estate sector.

REIT is also seen to provide a cheap funding source for developers, raising fresh capital for finance future projects, which in turn will ramp up construction activities and employment, said Janlo de los Reyes, JLL Philippines’ head of research and consultancy.

Among the asset classes, the office segment is the most attractive due to its relatively stable outlook and resilient rental growth rates moving forward, he explained.

“As the government targets to reopen the economy and increase the operational capacity of businesses, we expect demand to improve in 2021 and potentially normalize in 2022,” added Luis Zarcal, Assistant Manager for Research and Consultancy.

 “We remain confident that traditional offices and O&O firms will spearhead demand post-lockdown. We may also see increased demand for office spaces outside Metro Manila, such as Cebu and Davao, for potential business continuity plan site locations,” Zarcal continued.