Bacolod rising as affluent property hub
Bacolod City is definitely on the radar of major property developers.
National players have been launching massive vertical (condominium) and horizontal (house-and-lot, and lot-only) residential projects left and right. Property firms are aggressively taking advantage of the city’s growing attractiveness for new office, hotel, and residential projects.
Colliers Philippines believes Bacolod City will remain a dynamic property hub in Visayas and Mindanao. Property prices continue to increase, indicating a rising appetite for real estate projects. The city continues to corner interest from national players planning to further expand their office, residential, retail, and hotel footprint in Visayas.
Competitive and progressive city
Bacolod City ranked the 19th most competitive highly urbanized city out of 33 cities in the Philippines, according to the Cities and Municipalities Index 2024.
This means that Bacolod City is seen as a competitive and attractive local government unit (LGU) in the country. With this competitiveness, we see more businesses keeping the city on their investment radar. Having more local and foreign businesses in the city also means developers can tap a growing market of investors and end-users.
Bacolod’s economy remains strong, contributing to the impressive performance of Western Visayas, which grew by 7.2 percent in 2023—making it the second-fastest growing region in the Philippines and outpacing the national GDP growth of 5.6 percent. Western Visayas now accounts for 4.9 percent of the country’s GDP. The region’s construction sector is especially robust, with a 15.8 percent increase in 2023, driven by a combination of sustained public projects and active private construction from major property developers.
Western Visayas also accounts for 9 percent of the 2.16 million overseas Filipino workers deployed in 2023. This means Western Visayas will continue to capture a formidable portion of cash remittances sent home by Filipinos working abroad. In 2023, OFWs sent home $33.5 billion in cash remittances—a figure expected to grow by 3 percent this year.
Improving infrastructure
Bacolod enjoys tremendous economic opportunities, and these should be complemented by the implementation of industry game-changing public projects such as a railway system, bridge, and highways.
Among the projects we believe will further raise land and property prices in Bacolod are the P188-billion Panay-Guimaras-Negros Inter-Island Link Bridge, a 32.5-km bridge that will connect Panay Island, Guimaras Island, and Negros Island in Western Visayas.
The P70 billion Panay Railway System project covers the reconstruction of the existing 114-km railway line and integration with the new 141-km railway line passing through the cities of Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan.
Meanwhile, the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Economic Highway is an P8.2 billion, 49-km project that will benefit about 20,000 travelers per day.
Competitive office market
Bacolod cornered 3,000 sqm of transactions in H1 2024, accounting for 2 percent of total deals outside Metro Manila. Some major BPO companies are already operating in Bacolod, including Teleperformance, IQor, InteLogix, Transcom, Teletech, Ubiquity, and Panasiatic Solutions.
Bacolod recorded an office vacancy of 24.2 percent as of the end of H1 2024, a slight improvement from the 26.9 percent in H2 2023. From 2024 to 2026, we project the annual delivery of 15,800 sqm of new offices with the completion of No. 1 and No. 5 Upper East BPO Towers by Megaworld, AIU Centre Bacolod by AU and Sons Merchandising, and the SM Bacolod North Block Towers.
Bacolod City is part of Negros Occidental, which produces about 8,000 graduates annually, according to latest data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). This makes the city a viable location for outsourcing firms.
Residential market upside
Bacolod’s condominium stock reached 5,810 units as of end H1 2024. From 2024 to 2026, we expect the annual average delivery of 1,000 condominium units here.
The city’s condominium market is relatively small but some projects are priced between P193,000 and P273,000 per sqm—already some of the more expensive in Visayas and Mindanao (VisMin) but are recording good take-up rates. Bacolod’s condominium prices grew by an average of 14.5 percent a year from 2016 to 2023, one of the fastest in VisMin.
What’s notable is that national property firms have established their presence in Bacolod not by merely developing standalone residential projects but also through expansive integrated communities. We project this trend to continue in the near to medium term.
Meanwhile, H&L projects in Negros Occidental recorded an average annual price increase of 7.4 percent from 2016 to 2023. Lot-only developments recorded a stronger price appreciation during the period, at 20.4 percent annually from 2016 to 2023.
Like the Filipino delicacies piaya and napoleones, Bacolod’s property market certainly hits the sweet spot.
Email the author at joey.bondoc@colliers.com
