Developers in the Philippines will continue to build more office space for the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in the next five years as it continues being one of the leaders in the global BPO industry. 

CBRE Philippines president Rick Santos said, in an interview published in Philippine broadsheet Malaya, that the Philippines continues to be “one of the most cost-effective office space construction destinations in Asia.”

He added that prospects are bright for 2013 with the continued growth in the BPO/office, gaming, residential, and leisure sectors.

According to CBRE Global Corporate Services vice chairman Joey Radovan, BPOs are expected to comprise 80-90 % of total office supply for 2013. The estimate is based on the BPO sector’s objectives of hitting $26 billion in revenues by 2016 and expanding its workforce from 1.2 million to 1.4 million by the same year. 

Radovan added that the projected rate would only make up 10 percent of the global revenues and that there is clearly more “capacity for growth.”

One of the factors for the growth in real estate for the BPO sector, according to Radovan, is the continued dominance of the Philippines as one of the leading outsourcing destinations in the world. 

In the same interview with Malaya, Radovan said, “The Philippines is becoming the lifeboat for many US and European companies that need to outsource in order for their businesses to survive and in turn preserve jobs back in the US and Europe. We see a return and rapid expansion of US and European MNCs to the Philippines.”