By Jenina P. Ibañez, Reporter
DAMOSA LAND, Inc. is expecting recovery this year after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a slowdown across its property segments.
The Davao-based property developer started seeing an uptick in business at the end of the third quarter last year, Damosa Land First Vice-President and Chief Development Officer Ricardo F. Lagdameo said in an online interview on Friday.
The real estate arm of the Floirendo-owned Anflo Management and Investment Corp. offers residential, office, commercial, tourism, and industrial spaces.
“For instance, residential sales have actually been quite decent considering the whole situation. Inquiries to our other projects, whether it was our offices, our industrial spaces — inquiries already started to really pick up in the fourth quarter of last year,” Mr. Lagdameo said.
Some segments hit hard by the pandemic, including the loss of foot traffic for commercial spaces and tourism, have also seen slight recovery. Some new tenants and visitors have started occupying their commercial and hospitality spaces respectively, he said.
“If we hit our targets for this year — there are certain milestones we need to hit — we’ll actually match our 2019 numbers this year already,” Mr. Lagdameo said.
The milestones, he said, include finishing and turning over residential construction delayed last year, leasing out 15-20% of its newly completed office space, and selling or making long-term leases on two to three hectares of its industrial park.
The office sector maintained some resiliency last year due to business process outsourcing, Mr. Lagdameo said, while the hospitality segment suffered.
Davao remains an outsourcing hub outside Metro Manila due to its skilled manpower, with 2021 office recovery likely to be led by demand from both traditional and outsourcing occupants, Colliers Philippines said in a December report.
Damosa Land has been receiving an uptick in outsourcing inquiries starting in the fourth quarter last year, especially with renewed business confidence among United States firms after the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout started. The interest, however, is still far from pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, the company is still in talks with two foreign agri-industrial firms that could locate at its Anflo Industrial Estate in Panabo City.
“We’re looking to close these in the second quarter of this year,” he said of the European and Asian companies.
“If we are able to bring in these two locators in the next couple of months, these will probably be the biggest deals to date that we’ve done for the company,” he added, referring both to the space they will occupy and the size of the investments.