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Shopping Frenzy Spurs Philippine Mall Owners to Add Record Space

  • Manila is adding a record 724,620 sqm of retail space in 2016
  • Builders like SM Prime, Ayala Land lead mall-building boom
A basketball game is played at the Robinsons Mall in Manila.

A basketball game is played at the Robinsons Mall in Manila.

Photographer: Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Philippine builders like SM Prime Holdings Inc. and Ayala Land Inc. can’t add retail space fast enough to satisfy demand from Southeast Asia’s most-confident consumers that pack Manila’s malls.

A record 724,620 square meters (7.8 million square feet) of new retail space will be added in the Philippine capital next year, according to Colliers International. That is a 10th of the existing stock as of the third quarter, according to the real estate broker.