Construction activity grows 10% in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines — Construction activity grew 10.4 percent in the first quarter of the year as more residential buildings were built, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The Construction Statistics from Approved Building Permits in the first quarter of 2019 showed the total number of constructions rising to 39,762 in the first quarter from 36,002 constructions during the same period in 2018.

Out of the total number, 69.2 percent were residential buildings equivalent to 27,528 projects. Compared with the first quarter of 2018, this type of construction was 8.5 percent higher this quarter with growth attributed mainly to the increase in single-type houses.

Non-residential constructions, meanwhile, accounted for 16.2 percent of the total equivalent to 6,449 projects, up by 15.4 percent from 5,587 projects last year.

All types of non-residential constructions posted increases during the period: agricultural, institutional, industrial, commercial, and other non-residential structures.

Additions to existing structures also increased by 22.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019 to 1,589 from 1,293 projects in the same period last year.

Similarly, the combined number of alterations and repairs of existing structures at 4,205 increased by 11.8 percent from the 3,760 projects recorded in the same quarter of previous year.

Most of these projects, around 62.9 percent, are concentrated in CALABARZON, Central Visayas, Central Luzon, Davao Region and Ilocos Region.

Provinces seeing a boom in construction activity during the period were: Cavite, Negros Oriental, Davao del Sur, Batangas and Laguna.

These projects in the first quarter of 2019 were collectively valued at P115.8 billion, up by 13.8 percent compared with P101.7 billion in the same period last year.

It became cheaper to build residential dwellings in the first three months of the year as seen in the 16.3 percent decline in the average cost per square meter in the construction of residential buildings to P10,621 from P12,682 last year.

The average cost per square meter for non-residential projects, meanwhile, rose by 5.8 percent to P10,668 in the first quarter compared with the P9,210 average cost last year.