Makati's Real Estate and Hospitality Recovery Has Outrun Its Talent Supply. Here Is Where the Gap Is Widest.
Makati CBD's luxury hotels reported average daily rates 12% higher in 2024 than in the prior year. Retail vacancy in Greenbelt and Power Plant Mall fell below 8%, down from pandemic peaks above 18%. Ayala Land committed PHP 120 billion in capital expenditure through 2030 for vertical densification of its Makati holdings. And Mandarin Oriental Makati is now scheduled to open in Q2 2026, the first material luxury hotel supply addition in over a decade.
Every one of these indicators points in the same direction: a sector accelerating into a development and operational cycle that demands more senior leadership talent than the Philippine market currently contains. The problem is not weak demand. It is that the talent pool contracted permanently during 2020 to 2022, through emigration, career switching, and an enrolment collapse in hospitality management programmes, and has not recovered. The result is a market where revenue is approaching pre-pandemic levels but the people required to run the buildings, fill the rooms, and close the leases are structurally absent.
What follows is a ground-level analysis of where Makati's real estate, retail, and hospitality hiring gaps are most acute, what is driving them, and what organisations competing for leadership talent in this market need to do differently in 2026.
A Two-Tier Office Market Is Creating Two Separate Hiring Problems
The headline vacancy figure for Makati CBD offices stood at 16.5% as of late 2024, according to JLL Philippines. On its face, that number suggests a tenant-friendly market with room to negotiate. It does not tell the real story.
Grade A prime assets tell a different story entirely. Buildings like Zuellig, Ayala North Exchange, and Enterprise Center operated at 85 to 90% occupancy through 2024. Effective rents in those properties reached PHP 1,350 per square metre per month in Q3 2024, an 8% year-on-year increase and a record high. The vacancy is concentrated almost entirely in functionally obsolete secondary stock from the 1990s in Salcedo Village and along the Buendia corridor, where rates of 30 to 35% vacancy are common.
This bifurcation creates two distinct talent problems. Prime asset owners need leasing and asset management executives who can maintain occupancy at premium rents, negotiate with BPO-IT tenants on PEZA regulatory terms, and manage institutional investor relations as REIT structures mature. Owners of ageing stock need development managers who can assemble fragmented land titles, demolish and redesign buildings for mixed-use vertical formats, and manage construction timelines in a CBD where zero greenfield sites above 5,000 square metres remain.
These are not the same professionals. The skills required to optimise a Grade A PEZA-registered tower are fundamentally different from those needed to redevelop a 1990s office building into a retail-hotel-residential hybrid. Yet both categories draw from the same small pool of Makati-experienced property executives, and both are recruiting simultaneously as Ayala Land's Glorietta V groundbreaking and Rockwell's Power Plant Mall north wing expansion add further demand.
The implication for executive hiring in Makati's real estate and construction sector is clear: the aggregate vacancy number masks the real competitive pressure for talent, and any hiring strategy built on the assumption that a soft office market means available candidates is miscalibrated from the start.
The Hospitality Revenue Recovery That Cannot Be Staffed
Makati's luxury hotel cluster achieved average occupancy of 72 to 76% in 2024, within reach of the 80 to 85% pre-pandemic baseline. Average daily rates for luxury properties recovered to PHP 9,500 to 12,000. International visitor arrivals to the Philippines hit 5.5 million in 2024, approaching 80% of the 2019 figure of 7.4 million.
These numbers suggest a sector moving toward full recovery. They conceal a constraint that no amount of demand growth can resolve on its own.
The 150,000 Who Left and Did Not Return
The Philippines lost an estimated 150,000 hospitality-trained workers to permanent emigration and career switching between 2020 and 2022, according to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and the Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines (HRAP). Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom all expanded hospitality visa pathways during the pandemic. The BPO sector, offering stable indoor work and higher entry-level wages, absorbed thousands more. This was not a cyclical downturn. It was a permanent reduction in the supply base.
At the same time, the absolute number of hospitality management graduates entering the workforce dropped 25% from 2019 levels, reflecting pandemic-era enrolment collapses that are now flowing through into the labour market with a three-to-five-year lag.
The General Manager Shortage at the Top
The consequences are most visible at the general manager level. The luxury hospitality segment faces a critical shortage of GMs with pre-opening experience and Mandarin-language capabilities. According to the HRAP Talent Pipeline Report 2024, 85 to 90% of qualified Filipino GMs with international luxury brand experience are currently employed and not actively seeking new roles. This is a passive candidate market by any definition, with average time-to-fill running 90 to 120 days.
The pattern that has emerged is instructive. Leading international hotel groups operating in Makati have increasingly resorted to relocating expatriate GMs from secondary-tier Asian cities such as Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur to fill openings, at annual costs of USD 180,000 to 250,000 plus housing allowances. They do so not because they prefer expatriate appointments, but because local talent with the required combination of luxury service standards and Chinese market expertise is unavailable in sufficient numbers.
An estimated 200 to 250 experienced Filipino GMs and Directors of Sales are currently based in Singapore and Dubai. Singapore offers PHP 15 million to 25 million for comparable GM roles, a 70 to 120% premium over Makati compensation. Dubai adds the pull of tax-free status. This cohort represents 15 to 20% of the pre-pandemic domestic senior hospitality talent pool, and the dynamics that pulled them overseas show no sign of reversing.
The operational consequence is that Makati's hospitality GDP contribution may remain structurally capped below 2019 peaks even as demand returns, because the rooms that can actually be staffed at luxury service levels are fewer than the rooms that physically exist.
Where Capital Moved Faster Than Human Capital Could Follow
This is the central analytical tension in Makati's property and hospitality market in 2026, and it is not stated directly in any single data source. The investment cycle has accelerated. The talent cycle has not kept pace.
Ayala Land's "Makati 2040" masterplan envisions PHP 120 billion in committed capital expenditure through 2030. One Ayala, the mixed-use tower adding 45,000 square metres of office space and 15,000 square metres of retail, is reaching completion. Glorietta V, an estimated PHP 8 billion investment transitioning a pure retail site into a retail-hotel-residential hybrid, broke ground following demolition of Glorietta 1 and 2 in late 2024. Rockwell Land is advancing the Proscenium Residences final tower and the Power Plant Mall north wing expansion. Makati City Council's proposed Vertical Density Bonus ordinance, expected to be ratified, incentivises further redevelopment of ageing office stock by offering additional floor area ratios in exchange for public amenity contributions.
Every one of these projects requires senior leadership talent that takes a decade or more to develop. A VP of Development who can programme a vertical mixed-use tower for "live-work-play" integration while managing residential pre-selling velocity impacts on office capitalisation rates does not emerge from a graduate programme. A Chief Asset Management Officer who can optimise a PHP 450 billion combined portfolio across office, retail, and hospitality while preparing it for REIT listing and institutional investor scrutiny is not produced in three years. A Head of Leasing for luxury retail who maintains direct relationships with LVMH, Kering, and Richemont group tenants is not trained overnight.
The capital was committed on the assumption that human capital would be available to execute the strategy. That assumption is under pressure. The talent pool contracted during the pandemic, emigration removed a measurable share of senior hospitality professionals, and the enrolment pipeline for the next generation narrowed at exactly the moment the development pipeline expanded. Capital moved faster than human capital could follow, and the organisations that recognised this earliest are the ones now paying the steepest premiums to secure leadership before the hiring competition intensifies further.
Compensation Benchmarks That Reveal the Competitive Pressure
Salary data across Makati's three core property and hospitality functions illustrates how the supply constraint translates into concrete compensation dynamics.
Hospitality Leadership
At the operations manager and director of rooms level, total annual compensation sits at PHP 1.8 million to 2.4 million. At the general manager and regional VP level, it rises to PHP 6.0 million to 9.5 million, with international brand premiums pushing to PHP 12 million for Mandarin-speaking executives managing pre-opening properties. The gap between these tiers is not simply a seniority premium. It reflects a market where mid-level talent is available through conventional recruitment, while the senior tier is almost entirely passive and requires direct search methods that reach candidates who are not actively looking.
Commercial Leasing and Asset Management
Leasing managers and asset managers command PHP 1.2 million to 1.8 million. At the Head of Leasing and VP Asset Management level, compensation reaches PHP 4.5 million to 7.0 million. Ayala Land and Rockwell Land pay 15 to 20% premiums above second-tier developers specifically to prevent their senior leasing executives from being recruited by Singapore-based REITs such as CapitaLand and Frasers. Those Singapore roles offer SGD 120,000 to 180,000 for comparable VP-level positions, plus regional portfolio exposure that accelerates career trajectory toward CEO and CIO roles. The competition is not only domestic. It is regional, and the risk of losing a key hire to a counteroffer or international opportunity is elevated in this market.
Development Management
Project managers and senior development managers sit at PHP 1.5 million to 2.2 million. VP Development and Director of Construction roles reach PHP 5.0 million to 8.0 million, with material variable components tied to project milestone completion. The premium for Makati-specific zoning expertise and experience with vertical mixed-use programming on constrained CBD sites is substantial, because this knowledge cannot be imported from other Philippine cities where development conditions are fundamentally different.
For hiring leaders benchmarking packages against this data, current market compensation intelligence is essential. The figures above represent 2024 survey data, and the 2026 hiring cycle for Mandarin Oriental, Glorietta V, and One Ayala is pushing premiums further.
The Roles That Define the Next Development Cycle
Three executive-level roles will shape the strategic direction of Makati's property and hospitality sector through the remainder of this decade.
Chief Asset Management Officer
This is an emerging C-suite position at both Ayala Land and Rockwell Land, responsible for optimising their combined PHP 450 billion portfolio across office, retail, and hospitality assets. The role focuses on REIT-readiness, institutional investor relations, and capital recycling. It requires a professional who can speak the language of international capital markets while operating within the Philippine regulatory framework, including the ambiguities of BIR Revenue Regulations on REIT dividend taxation that currently threaten the PHP 80 billion REIT pipeline.
Finding someone who combines deep Philippine regulatory knowledge with international institutional investor credibility is the core challenge. The candidate pool is extremely narrow. Most Filipino property executives with this profile have been recruited into Singapore or Hong Kong platforms, and the proposition to bring them back must address more than compensation. It must address career trajectory, portfolio scale, and operational autonomy.
VP for Hospitality Development (Pre-Opening)
The 2026 hotel pipeline, including the 275-key Mandarin Oriental and a 150-key extended-stay property in Rockwell, demands a specific leadership profile: someone who can simultaneously oversee construction coordination, brand standards implementation, pre-opening staffing, and commercial positioning. Pre-opening experience in luxury hospitality is rare because the opportunities to acquire it are rare. No new luxury hotel supply entered the Makati market in 2024, and the last material supply addition before the current pipeline was in 2013. A professional who has opened a luxury hotel in Southeast Asia in the past five years is a known quantity to every competing hotel group in the region.
Head of Leasing (Luxury Retail)
The recovery of luxury retail tenancy in Greenbelt 3 and 4, where Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co. expanded footprints through 2024, depends on leasing directors who maintain direct negotiating relationships with the major luxury conglomerates. A confidential search for a Leasing Director (Luxury) position in Greenbelt was reportedly suspended in Q2 2024 after six months, with the hiring committee concluding that no candidate in the domestic market possessed both the required LVMH and Hermès relationships and the technical lease structuring expertise for Philippine PEZA regulations. The role was ultimately filled by internal promotion of a regional manager from Singapore with a 35% relocation premium above Makati market rates, according to industry briefings cited by BusinessWorld.
Each of these roles sits in what the industry describes as a passive candidate market. The professionals qualified to fill them are employed, performing, and not reading job advertisements. Reaching them requires a fundamentally different method from the one most Philippine employers default to.
The Structural Risks That Compound the Hiring Challenge
Beyond the supply-demand imbalance, several structural factors make Makati's talent market harder to operate in than headline growth figures suggest.
Land Economics That Compress Returns
Makati CBD has effectively zero greenfield sites exceeding 5,000 square metres. All new development requires assemblage of fragmented land titles or demolition of vintage buildings. Land values have reached PHP 500,000 to 800,000 per square metre, the highest in Southeast Asia outside Singapore, compressing development yields to 6 to 7% from 9 to 10% achievable in BGC or Ortigas. This means development teams must be more skilled, not less, to generate acceptable returns. The margin for error in project programming, construction management, and lease negotiation is thinner here than anywhere else in the Philippines.
Geopolitical Suppression of a Key Revenue Segment
Chinese tourist arrivals, which accounted for 22% of luxury hotel room nights in Makati in 2019, remain suppressed at approximately 45% of forecast levels due to South China Sea diplomatic friction. This has forced revenue management teams to discount ADR to capture Korean, Indian, and domestic corporate segments, a strategic pivot that requires different market knowledge and commercial relationships than the China-focused revenue strategies that preceded it. Revenue managers with multi-segment expertise are in short supply.
Climate and Insurance Cost Escalation
The July 2024 monsoon flooding caused PHP 450 million in property damage to ground-floor retail in Greenbelt 1 and Legaspi Village. Insurance premiums for ground-floor commercial spaces rose 18 to 22% in response. Makati's drainage infrastructure, largely constructed in the 1970s and 1980s, cannot accommodate intensified monsoon events. This adds a cost layer to property management and development that demands professionals with climate risk assessment and infrastructure engineering expertise, skills that were not part of the traditional Makati property management skill set even five years ago.
REIT Regulatory Uncertainty
The ambiguity in BIR Revenue Regulations No. 10-2021 on REIT dividend taxation, with potential increases from 10% to 15 to 25% withholding tax under certain asset transfer conditions, threatens the capital recycling strategies that fund redevelopment. Executives who can structure REIT vehicles to withstand regulatory scrutiny while maintaining investor returns are in demand across all Philippine property companies, not only in Makati, further diluting the available pool.
Each of these risks elevates the minimum competence threshold for senior leadership hires. The roles are harder to fill not only because candidates are scarce, but because the roles themselves have become more complex.
What This Market Requires From a Search Strategy
Makati's real estate and hospitality talent market in 2026 is defined by a structural contradiction. The investment thesis is strong. The capital is committed. The demand fundamentals are sound. And the people required to execute the strategy are either employed elsewhere in the market, employed overseas, or employed in adjacent sectors they left hospitality and property for during the pandemic.
A hiring approach built around job postings and inbound applications reaches, at best, the 10 to 15% of qualified candidates who happen to be actively looking at any given moment. In a market where 85 to 90% of qualified luxury hospitality GMs are passive, and where senior leasing directors have average tenures of 4.2 years and are receiving retention bonuses to stay, conventional methods fail before they begin. The consequence of a slow or poorly targeted search is not merely delay. It is that the strongest candidates accept competing offers from Singapore-based REITs, Dubai hotel groups, or domestic competitors who moved faster.
This is the environment in which KiTalent's AI-enhanced direct headhunting methodology delivers measurable advantage. By mapping the full universe of qualified candidates, including the 80% who are not visible on any job board, and engaging them directly with market intelligence and calibrated propositions, KiTalent delivers interview-ready executive candidates within 7 to 10 days. The firm's talent mapping capability identifies not only who is qualified, but who is reachable, movable, and aligned with the specific requirements of a role in Makati's constrained and competitive property market.
With a 96% one-year retention rate across 1,450 executive placements, and a pay-per-interview model that eliminates upfront retainer risk, KiTalent is built for markets where the cost of a failed or delayed executive search is measured in missed development milestones, revenue lost to understaffed hotel operations, and luxury tenants who take their flagship formats to BGC or Singapore instead.
For organisations competing for development, hospitality, and leasing leadership in Makati, where every month of vacancy compounds into real financial exposure, speak with our executive search team about how we approach this market.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is it so difficult to hire a luxury hotel general manager in Makati?
The difficulty stems from a structural supply contraction. An estimated 200 to 250 experienced Filipino GMs and Directors of Sales now work in Singapore and Dubai, where compensation premiums of 70 to 120% over Makati rates are standard. The domestic pipeline has further narrowed because hospitality management graduate numbers dropped 25% from 2019 levels following pandemic-era enrolment declines. With 85 to 90% of qualified GMs already employed and not actively seeking roles, Makati luxury hotel searches typically require 90 to 120 days and direct headhunting methods that reach passive candidates.
What are the typical executive compensation levels for property development roles in Makati CBD?
VP Development and Director of Construction roles in Makati's mixed-use vertical projects command PHP 5.0 million to 8.0 million in total annual compensation, with material variable components tied to project milestone completion. Senior specialists and project managers sit at PHP 1.5 million to 2.2 million. Ayala Land and Rockwell Land pay 15 to 20% premiums above second-tier developers for asset management and leasing leadership to counter recruitment from Singapore-based REITs offering SGD 120,000 to 180,000 for comparable roles.
How does Makati's office vacancy rate affect the talent market?
Makati's headline vacancy of 16.5% is misleading. The vacancy is concentrated in functionally obsolete secondary buildings from the 1990s, while Grade A prime assets operate at 85 to 90% occupancy with record rents. This bifurcation creates two separate hiring demands: asset management professionals who can maintain premium occupancy, and development managers who can redevelop ageing stock into mixed-use formats. Both draw from the same limited pool of Makati-experienced property executives.
What skills are most in demand for Makati real estate executives in 2026?
Four skill areas face acute demand: PEZA regulatory and incentive structuring for BPO-IT tenant negotiations; green building and ESG compliance including LEED AP and EDGE certification; Mandarin language capabilities with Chinese market commercial acumen; and vertical mixed-use programming expertise for "live-work-play" tower formats. Sustainability directors with carbon accounting and green bond issuance experience are particularly scarce following Ayala Land's net-zero 2050 commitment.
How does the Philippines' hospitality brain drain affect Makati specifically?
The Philippines lost an estimated 150,000 hospitality-trained workers to permanent emigration and career switching during 2020 to 2022. For Makati, the impact is concentrated at senior leadership levels. The loss of 15 to 20% of the pre-pandemic domestic senior talent pool to Singapore and Dubai has forced international hotel groups to relocate expatriate managers at significantly higher cost rather than hire locally. Cruise line recruitment removes an additional 300 to 400 potential future senior candidates annually from the domestic pipeline.
What makes executive search different in Makati's hospitality and real estate sectors?
Makati's property and hospitality talent market is overwhelmingly passive. Job advertising reaches only a fraction of qualified candidates. The professionals most qualified to lead hotel pre-openings, manage mixed-use developments, or negotiate luxury retail leases are employed, performing, and receiving retention incentives from current employers. Effective search in this market requires AI-powered talent mapping to identify the full candidate universe and direct engagement methods that present a compelling proposition before competitors reach the same individuals.
