After Disruption Hit Philippines’ Taxi Industry, A Startup is Looking at the Real Estate

We are all aware of the changes that are happening the taxi/ transportations industry thanks companies like Uber and GrabTaxi, how about another industry such as Real Estate? This time Asians tycoons which most of their wealth are derives from Real Estate should look out for the next disruption.

Philippines economy is the second fastest growing economy in the SEA region and Manila and Cebu have one of the lowest office and retail vacancy rate in the World, this environment makes office space hunting for corporation very challenging. “The market is very pro-landlords allowing them to cherry pick among possible tenants” says Mario Berta, Founder and CEO of FlySpaces a startup that allows companies and freelancers to see all the short-term office and retail inventory that is out there, not only from short-term office provider like KMC Solutions or Regus but also from companies that simply have extra space and they want to rent it out.

“We want to offer a complete and comprehensive selection to people and corporations that need flexibility, you can be a freelancer looking for better internet connection than a coffee shop or your home as well as an established corporation that needs meeting rooms for couple of hours around town or satellite office or a brand that is looking to set up a pop-up shop to test a product”, Mario added.

Flyspaces, is an online marketplace (just like Airbnb), but is not charging any fee to the user, it makes money charging a “booking fee” to the space provider and is now live in Manila and Cebu with more than 100 spaces available to book. “Our objective is to truly empower SMEs around Asia which can not afford the substantial financial engagement that long-term rentals require, I myself struggled to find an office when I was setting up a venture for Rocket Internet around Asia and specifically The Philippines”.

Flyspaces is timely coming into the game, the prices of office space are skyrocketing in most the ASEAN markets and flexibility is needed, in the Philippines alone companies like Regus are heavily expanding into the country with currently 19 centers and more to come live in the next month.