Iloilo City has outpaced Metro Cebu in total real estate transactions for the first quarter of 2026, marking a historic shift in the country’s investment landscape.
Based on data released by property advisory firm Colliers Philippines during a briefing on Tuesday, May 5, Iloilo now holds the top spot for transaction volume among all regional hubs outside the National Capital Region (NCR).
Joey Roi Bondoc, Colliers Philippines research director, noted that the spike is a direct result of new office and residential inventory hitting the market.
“I would like to believe that it’s a supply-driven increase in transactions. Usually that happens—not just in residential, but even for office. If you see new office buildings being completed in a certain locality, usually that’s the city that attracts new tenants,” he said.
Bondoc emphasized that Iloilo is no longer just a destination for traditional back-office business process outsourcing (BPO) firms. Instead, the city is successfully courting “higher value” outsourcing companies that require premium, Grade-A spaces.
“Iloilo tracks not just the back-office BPO companies; they attract the higher-value outsourcing companies. You just go around the [Iloilo Business Park (IBP)], you look at the buildings, you see the tenants—that’s a pretty interesting insight,” he added.
The real estate figures were bolstered by recent data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which named Western Visayas the fastest-growing regional economy in the Philippines for 2025. The region recorded a stellar 6.4% growth rate, outpacing the national average of 4.4%.
With its economy now valued at P683.44 billion, Western Visayas has leveraged a strong rebound in agriculture and a dominant services sector to maintain its lead.
According to Analysts, Iloilo City acts as the primary engine for this growth, maintaining high GDP per capita and inclusive social indicators, including a single-digit poverty incidence.
While Iloilo’s Q1 performance is unprecedented, experts are cautiously optimistic about whether it can consistently maintain this lead over Metro Cebu, which has long been the primary alternative to Manila.
“Will it keep on outpacing Cebu? We’ve yet to see that. But at least for the first quarter of the year, Iloilo recorded the largest office transactions outside of Metro Manila. That does not happen every quarter,” Bondoc said.
As vacancy rates in other major hubs fluctuate, Iloilo’s “integrated township” model—epitomized by the 72-hectare IBP—is being cited as the gold standard for attracting both domestic and international capital.IMT
