Residential development boosts construction works in 2018 fourth quarter

MANILA, Philippines — Construction activity rose by 21 percent in the last quarter of 2018 as more residential buildings were built, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

The Construction Statistics from Approved Building Permits report of the PSA for the fourth quarter of last year showed the total number of construction works reached 40,369, up from 33,445 during the same quarter in 2017.

Most of the projects were residential buildings, comprising 73.9 percent of the total or 29,845 projects. Compared with the fourth quarter of the previous year, the number of residential construction was 26 percent higher.

Increases were seen in construction for residential condominiums, duplex/quadruplex, apartment/accessoria and single-type houses.

Construction of non-residential projects also rose by 12 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 5,491 projects or 13.6 percent of total.

Growth was brought about by increased building activity for institutional, industrial and commercial buildings.

Additions to existing structures likewise rose by 6.7 percent year-on-year to 1,226 projects in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The number of alterations and repairs of existing structures at 3,807 grew by 2.9 percent from the 3,700 recorded during the same period of the previous year.

During the quarter, the top five regions in terms of the number of projects, collectively comprised 65.2 percent of total.

CALABARZON continued to account for the biggest share with 10,243 projects or 25.4 percent of total. Central Visayas recorded 5,569 construction activities, a share of 13.8 percent to total.

Other regions were Central Luzon with 4,411, National Capital Region (NCR) with 3,114 and Davao Region with 2,966.

At the provincial level, the following provinces accounted for 49.1 percent of the total construction in the fourth quarter of 2018: Cavite, Cebu, Bohol, Davao Del Sur, Batangas, Negros Oriental, Laguna, fourth district of NCR, Negros Occidental and Misamis Oriental. It became cheaper to build residential units in the last quarter of 2018 as the average cost per square meter of residential constructions  fell by 1.6 percent to P10,603 from the average cost of P10,777 in the same quarter the previous year.