Property buyers prefer house & lot over condo

CEBU, Philippines — Despite the popularity of condominium units as modern day homes, the Philippines’ sale of housing properties is still dominated by house and lot or single-detached packages.

Latest record from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) revealed that 46% of residential loans availed of from the banking institutions for the first quarter of 2019 were single-detached units.

Forty-four percent of the residential acquisitions funded by banks were condominium units, followed closely by townhouses with 8.6%.

About 74% of residential real estate loans (RRELs) were for the acquisition of new housing units.

By region, NCR accounted for 42.5% of the total number of RRELs granted during the quarter, followed by AONCR CALABARZON (28.5%), Central Luzon (9.1%), Central Visayas (6.5%), Western Visayas (4.4%), Davao Region (2.6%) and Northern Mindanao (2%). Together, NCR and these six other regions accounted for 95.6% of total housing loans granted by banks for the period.

Meanwhile, BSP report indicated that residential real estate prices were higher by 3.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in first quarter this year. This is because the Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI)–which measures the average change in the prices of various types of housing units comprised of single detached houses, duplexes, townhouses, and condominium units, based on data from housing loans granted by universal, commercial, and thrift banks—increased to 119.9 from 116.3 for the same quarter a year ago.

Year-on-year (y-o-y) prices of condominium units and townhouses, on the other hand, grew by 10.9% and 9.6%, respectively. Correspondingly, quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), the RREPI rose by 1.6%.

Prices of single detached housing units decreased by 1.7%. Similarly, prices of duplex units (which account for only 0.5 percent of total new housing units reported) also declined by 8% year-on-year. (FREEMAN)