Aboitiz's six awards at the 2026 PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards reflect growing recognition of its jobs-first, industry-anchored philosophy as a broader model for integrated development.

As economic activity expands beyond Metro Manila, the question facing real estate developers is changing as well: how do you build places capable of supporting not only new investment, but also the businesses, jobs and communities that grow around it?

The PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards, organized by regional property technology platform PropertyGuru, are among the most established real estate award programs in Southeast Asia, judged on criteria spanning design, construction quality, sustainability and overall development excellence. Recognition across multiple categories in a single year is therefore an indicator of breadth, not merely of single-project strength.

For Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land, the answer has been shaped by decades of industry-anchored development.

That approach gained wider recognition at the 2026 PropertyGuru Philippines Property Awards, where Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land were named Best Developer (Luzon). Aboitiz Economic Estates also received Best Industrial Developer for the sixth consecutive year and Best Sustainable Commercial Developer, while TARI Estate, Biz Hub at LIMA Estate and The Villages at LIMA Estate earned awards in their respective development categories.

The significance lies not simply in the number of awards, but in their breadth. Together, they recognize different dimensions of a development philosophy that starts with economic fundamentals—investment, infrastructure and jobs—then builds the commercial, residential, institutional and lifestyle ecosystem that growing regional economies require.

"For years, our strength has been industrial development, grounded in the belief that real estate should begin with the economic fundamentals: investment, infrastructure, and jobs. From that foundation, more complete communities can grow," said Rafael Fernandez de Mesa, President and CEO of Aboitiz Economic Estates and Aboitiz Land.

"To now be recognized across industrial, mixed-use, residential, sustainability, and overall development tells us that this approach is increasingly relevant beyond the category where it began. We will continue raising the benchmark for integrated development by building places where businesses can compete, people can access opportunity, and communities can grow sustainably."

Building new centers of growth

LIMA Estate in Batangas provides the most mature expression of the model. Over three decades, LIMA Estate has evolved from an industrial estate into an integrated economic community combining industry with business, residential, education, hospitality, retail and lifestyle uses.

Its commercial district, Biz Hub at LIMA Estate, named Best Completed Mixed Use Development, has grown around an established economic base. Its offices, retail, hospitality, education and services respond to demand generated by the companies, workers, residents, students and visitors already moving through the estate.

The same ecosystem supports The Villages at LIMA Estate, recognized as Best Lifestyle Housing Development. Developed by Aboitiz Land, the residential community connects families not only to employment, but also to schools, retail, dining, leisure, hospitality, open spaces and essential services within the wider LIMA ecosystem.

Together, these developments demonstrate how industrial investment can become the foundation for a more complete regional center, where economic opportunity and quality of life reinforce one another. It is a pattern visible across the region as well: industrial estates elsewhere in Asia have similarly served as anchors for mixed-use growth, as manufacturers and their supply chains bring workers, services and housing demand into previously agricultural or underdeveloped land.

Decades of experience, deployed at speed

In Central Luzon, TARI Estate, named Best Industrial Estate Development, represents the next iteration. Drawing on decades of industrial development experience, Aboitiz has been able to translate a greenfield site into an emerging industrial platform in a relatively short period.

The 384-hectare estate in Tarlac is strategically positioned along the Luzon Economic Corridor, with access to major transport infrastructure and economic gateways. Major investments from Ajinomoto Philippines and Coca-Cola Europacific Aboitiz Philippines are establishing its industrial base, while the estate is projected to support around 60,000 jobs at full build-out.

The arrival of multinationals such as Ajinomoto and Coca-Cola Europacific Aboitiz Philippines illustrates the broader manufacturing investment flowing into Philippine regional corridors, where companies seek lower land and operating costs combined with access to highways, ports and labor pools outside the capital.

LIMA Estate and TARI Estate therefore represent two stages of the same idea: one demonstrates what an industry-anchored economic community can become as it matures; the other shows how that experience can be applied to an emerging growth corridor.

Across its economic estates, Aboitiz Economic Estates now supports more than 260 locators, over 100,000 jobs and PHP175.4 billion in investments.

As investment increasingly moves beyond traditional metropolitan centers, Aboitiz sees an opportunity to apply this development capability to more regions of the country. How future estates are sited, and how quickly anchor locators commit to them, will be among the indicators to watch as the company extends the model.

The Best Developer (Luzon) recognition reflects the broader relevance the model is gaining. An approach long rooted in industrial estates is increasingly being recognized for what it can contribute to integrated real estate: starting with jobs and investment, and building the communities and regional economies that can grow around them.

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