Infrastructure projects that significantly cut travel time and forge connectivity across the country are emerging as key power drivers of the real property sector in 2026.
During a briefing on Wednesday, Dino Palanca, Director of Research and Marketing at real estate services firm KMC Savills, made it clear that the residential market is recalibrating after years of imbalance. Existing housing stock has tightened as developers decisively pivoted to other segments following a period of oversupply that stalled momentum.
Residential development remains strong in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and even Pampanga — despite its relative distance from Metro Manila — underscoring how infrastructure expansion is pushing growth corridors outward.
“The drivers are evident. We’re grateful that the government also has stepped in to play in building infrastructure projects and interconnecting businesses altogether. What this does is, apart from making ease of travel and business, it makes it more convenient, is also connects us regionally to, I guess, some more direct range areas of opportunity,” he said.
In the office market, demand is being driven by high-growth, high-impact industries. John Corpus, Executive Director for Tenant Representation, pointed to healthcare, financial technology, information technology, game development, and robotics within the IT-BPM sector as the forces aggressively fueling office space absorption.
Retail, meanwhile, is correcting course. Businesses have shifted back to large-format operations, such as major supermarkets, after small-format concepts like food carts and smaller branches failed to scale at the pace many had anticipated, according to Alex Samuel, Director for Consultancy and Valuation.
“So, that said, traditional formats that have a larger type of scale are more stable for the retailers,” he said.
The logistics boom is adding further pressure and opportunity to the retail property segment. Warehousing, distribution centers, and logistics hubs are expanding at a rapid clip, strengthening the backbone of commerce. Ninoy Tea, Executive Director for Investment Services, emphasized the scale of that acceleration.
“We’ve seen the growth of logistics hubs exponentially. We feel that it will continue to grow in the next five to 10 years,” he said.
The hospitality segment is also positioning itself to capitalize on demand spikes. Hotels and accommodation facilities in Subic, Zambales — buoyed by military exercises — as well as in Bohol, are seen as high-opportunity locations ready to capture sustained traffic.
On the policy front, KMC Savills executives stressed that the government must act decisively to reinforce investor confidence. They highlighted the urgency of lifting the moratorium on new Philippine Economic Zone Authority-accredited economic zones in Metro Manila, introducing stronger incentives for tenants aligned with green and sustainability initiatives, and expanding leeway on foreign ownership rules to accelerate manufacturing growth.
Together, these structural moves — infrastructure expansion, sector-driven demand, logistics acceleration, and policy reform — are shaping a more competitive and assertive real estate market heading into 2026.
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