Luxury hospitality seen as growth niche for Philippine developers

Property consultants said residential oversupply could push more Philippine developers to pursue luxury hospitality projects.

“With over 7,000 islands, it has all the ingredients, but it seems that Philippine hotel developers are conservative,” Bill Barnett, founder and managing director of Thailand-based hospitality consulting group C9 Hotelworks, said in an interview.

Mr. Barnett, who has served as a consultant for various hotel and residential developments across the Asia-Pacific, said many of the Philippines’ hotels and resorts are “family-run, so they tend to look at the industry and do what their friends do.”

“If somebody does one thing, they all do it,” he added.

Mr. Barnett also noted that some hospitality developers tend to be “commodity minded.”

“Meaning, they think more is better. More rooms, more things… You can’t commoditize luxury because somebody else can come in and lower their prices,” he added.

He also noted the oversupply of condominium units in Metro Manila would prompt developers to shift to the luxury segment.

“I think, now with real estate being overbuilt, Philippine developers will have to find a niche,” he said. “The real estate situation in the country triggers more luxury…because of the oversupply.”

For a luxury hospitality development to be attractive, Mr. Barnett said it is important to have easy access to its location.

“You can’t stay there if you can’t get there,” he said. “There should be enough flights which make it attractive, not only for guests, but to transport staff, and even goods and services.”

He also noted that luxury hospitality properties must have a unique selling point, with many travelers seeking localized experiences. Mr. Barnett also cited the importance of unique food & beverage concepts, strong internet connectivity, and exclusivity of location.

Alfred Lay, director for hotels, tourism, and leisure at Leechiu Property Consultants, said there are over 35 luxury hotel projects ongoing in the Philippines, accounting for over 7,500 hotel rooms over the next four years.

“If you include projects which have yet to be announced, then the number climbs to 50 luxury hotels and adding over 10,000 high end room keys,” he said in a Viber message.

However, air access remains a key roadblock in making the Philippines a fully realized luxury destination, Mr. Lay said.

“If you’re a high-spend international traveler, you don’t want connecting flights just to get to your resort — you want to land straight into places like El Nido or Siargao. Where we’ve got international airports near tourist hubs, you’ll notice the luxury hotels follow, such as Mactan, Panglao Island, Boracay,” he added.

Joey Roi H. Bondoc, director and head of research at Colliers Philippines, said luxury hotels are expected to perform well amid high occupancy rates and the entry of foreign hospitality brands into the country.

“Even if foreign arrivals to the Philippines dropped marginally in the first five months of 2025, there’s still a healthy level of occupancy, especially in Metro Manila hotels,” he said via telephone.

In the first half of the year, five-star hotel occupancies remained steady at 67% from the same period in 2024. This comes as foreign arrivals in the Philippines remain below pre-pandemic levels at 2.54 million as of end-May.

However, Colliers noted that the Philippines has a 4% penetration rate of branded hotels, way behind Singapore (45%), Indonesia (10%), and Thailand (8%).

“I think it will take a few more years for the Philippines to be at par with Thailand, Singapore, of course, Indonesia, especially if you look at our recovery rate pre-pandemic,” he said.

Source: Business World

Iconic hotels return as tourist arrivals hit 2.9M

The real estate market maintained its growth momentum in the first half of 2025, bolstered in part by a resurgence in tourism and strong demand across the office, industrial, and residential sectors, according to Santos Knight Frank’s latest market report.

Tourism receipts saw a notable boost, supported by the return of iconic hospitality brands, including Sofitel in Cebu and InterContinental in New Clark City. The resurgence of these landmark hotels, along with government-led initiatives such as tourism tax refunds and visa-free entry for key markets, has driven tourist arrivals to 2.9 million in the first half. Luxury hotel rates surged 11 percent, with Taguig commanding the highest average nightly rate at P14,991. High-end developments like Accor-Megaworld’s Mercure and Banyan Tree’s entry in New Clark City further signal confidence in the sector.

Net office absorption hit 192,000 sqm in H1 2025, driven primarily by the BPO sector expanding within Metro Manila. Taguig posted the lowest vacancy rate at 15 percent and the highest average asking rent at P1,248/sqm/month, surpassing the Metro average by 21 percent. A total of 158,000 sqm of new supply entered the market, with over 403,000 sqm more expected by year-end.

Manila was ranked 9th globally in Knight Frank’s Q1 2025 Prime Global Cities Index, with residential prices up 5.5 percent year-on-year. Prime villages like Forbes Park and Dasmariñas posted double-digit price growth, reflecting ongoing demand driven by limited supply.

In the industrial segment, CALABARZON and Central Luzon continue to attract foreign firms in manufacturing, logistics, and pharmaceuticals. Rental rates range from P230 to P290/sqm/month, offering competitive options for multinationals.

The opening of Smith & Wollensky at BGC’s Finance Center highlights the increasing presence of premium global brands, further validating Metro Manila’s growing appeal as a luxury retail and dining hub.

As foreign and local investments continue to flow, the Philippine real estate market demonstrates both resilience and opportunity across sectors — from the return of legacy hotels to the steady rise of industrial parks and luxury developments.

Source: Context

At Your Service

Concierges in luxury developments lift the lid on the demands of their super-rich clients — but have we reached ‘peak amenity’?

A bath full of honey? No problem. A fleet of sports cars transported by jet overseas? Sure. A Hermès Birkin bag in less than 24 hours? Leave it with me.

The requests that the concierges at the UK’s most expensive residences have to deal with are unusual, to say the least. “We are their pocket PAs,” says Lydia Varaona, the director of residences at the Peninsula, a luxury development next to Hyde Park where apartments are reported to cost up to £100 million.

“It is like we are part of their household and they can dial us whenever they want.” One of the residents once called Varaona from a hotel room overseas and asked her to have room service come and pick up his plate. Is it ever annoying? “No, it’s so fun, we find it really endearing,” she says — despite being called from all over the world at any time of day or night by the owners of the Peninsula’s 24 apartments.

According to the Land Registry, the owners include Todd Boehly, the American chairman of Chelsea FC; the Chinese automotive tycoon Chun Kiu Mak; and Sarath Ratanavadi, the chief executive of Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development.

“The majority of my colleagues have a background in hotels or residences,” Varaona says — she used to look after the equally picky owners of One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge. Unlike hotel residents, however, the owners at these developments stay for long periods at a time and return again and again. This means learning their individual preferences, from how they take their coffee to which newspaper they read and when.

The residents have their own pool, gym and spa, and access to all the hotel services, from an in-house chocolatier to private chefs. “Nothing seems weird. We’ve delivered specially crafted menus for owners and pets, cooked someone’s grandma’s cookie recipe for them, shipped a collection of sports cars to the south of France for a summer break, and found a seamstress in the middle of the night to alter a dress,” Varaona says.

It is the little things that impress most, though. Varaona and her team often take care of paying for an owner’s TV license, council tax, congestion charges, set up their broadband and organize their mode of transport.

Sylvain Bunel, the general manager at Regent’s Crescent, a high-end development in a redeveloped John Nash designed terrace next to Regent’s Park, says: “The true essence of our service lies in our ability to assist with mundane tasks. Residents rely on our team for various tasks, ranging from grocery shopping to finding a handyman. These activities form the backbone of our service and contribute significantly to our residents’ quality of life.

” At the Bryanston, a luxury tower of 54 apartments next to Marble Arch, the general manager, Hugo Pena, reports that “dogs are regularly towel dried by a member of the team after walks in the rain and then make a beeline for the concierge desk, where they know they’ll be given a treat”. “There are occasions when they ask for something that is not possible, like membership to Annabel’s,” says Dean Main, the founding partner of Rhodium, a super-prime management and consultancy firm that runs services for developments around the world, including the Bryanston.

But they did manage to bag a Hermès Birkin within 24 hours, organize a video meet-and greet with Justin Bieber and fly a pony out to St Tropez for a child’s birthday. More ordinary requests include organizing personal trainers, spa treatments, caring for pets, finding Michelin-starred personal chefs, sourcing artworks and PA support. For these Main’s staff have access to the company’s extensive black book of contacts. “We can get chefs from places like Nobu and Koya to come when they’re not working,” he says. A resident in a Rhodium managed Knightsbridge apartment asked whether the plumbing could handle a bath full of honey that his partner wanted as a spa treatment.

The plumbing, he was told, could cope. Of course all the requests, from the mundane to the ridiculous, are paid for by the residents — much of it via the steep service charges they pay. Roarie Scarisbrick, a partner at Property Vision, which finds properties for ultra-wealthy clients, says service charges at the £10 million-plus flats and homes he sources are usually between £15 and £20 a square foot — a 50 per cent increase on a decade ago. A £20 service charge for a 3,500 sq ft apartment would cost you £70,000 a year. Scarisbrick says service charges now often go even higher — although the top-end developments tend to be coy about how much they ask for.

Tom Rundall, a partner in the prime central London developments team at the estate agency Knight Frank, says the three biggest factors contributing to the service charge are building insurance, utilities and staff costs. “The costs on all of those have gone up. So, funnily enough, whether you’ve got a 25m pool, a cinema room or a boardroom doesn’t make a huge amount of difference.

It’s the actual staffing costs that is a killer. As soon as you go for 24-hour security and concierge the service charge goes whizzing up,” he says. “But if you had to employ those people in your own private household, then you’re going to pay a housekeeper, you’ve got to pay a gardener, you’ve got all the building maintenance that we all have — actually it’s more than a service charge. And I know that for [most people] the numbers are bonkers. But for the global elite it weirdly makes more sense to go into these buildings and just pay your one-off cost and you’ve got everything.”

Scarisbrick suggests, however, that we may soon be reaching “peak amenity”. He says: “Where does it all end when every swimming pool has to be a metre longer than the last? When will we reach peak opulence? “The finishes I see are getting more and more luxurious, with every surface excavated from some specialist quarry or carved from the rarest tree. I used to gasp at the best book-matched marble but now I’m immune.”

Source: The Times