Wazzup Pilipinas!
It goes without saying that 2015 is looking to be quite a good year for Philippine real estate. Although condo sales were not on par with what was recorded in 2012 (considered a banner year for Metro Manila’s condo market), other segments of the industry are posting stellar growth, particularly houses and office real estate. Lamudi Philippines (www.lamudi.com.ph) looked into its 2015 data and compiled a list of key observations that, hopefully, will guide the industry through years to come.
1. If you want a cheap
condo, look at Las Piñas
At a Php 49,849 per square meter, buying a condo in Las Piñas
is likely to be cheaper than anywhere else in the metro. At the opposite end of
the scale, Makati is the most expensive, with condos in the area costing an
average of Php139,012 per sqm. This means that a 60-sqm condo in Las Piñas will
set a buyer back Php2.99 million, while the same in Makati will cost Php8.34
million.
2. 59% of houses for
sale in Makati are worth more than Php100 million
It goes without saying that Makati is the Philippines’ priciest
city to buy any type of real estate. In fact, Lamudi data shows that 59 percent
of all listed properties in the city in the first quarter of 2015—most of them
in swanky neighborhoods and exclusive communities—have asking prices of more
than Php100 million.
3. Outside Metro Manila,
Cebu City tops the pricy list
In the Queen City of the South, half of all listed houses for
sale are priced Php8.5 million and up, making is the most expensive housing
market outside Metro Manila. In fact, some homes here are fetching as high as
Php150 million, rivaling opulent houses in Ayala Alabang and San Juan’s
Greenhills Village.
4. How much salary do
you need to afford a condo?
To afford a 60-sqm condo in Metro Manila, a buyer needs a
monthly salary of Php128,323, according to Lamudi’s calculation. This assumes
that the buyer spends not more than 30 percent of his monthly income on
mortgage repayments (including principal and interest) and makes a 20 percent
down payment on the property, following most banks’ 80/20 loan-to-value ratio.
The average price of condos in Metro Manila is Php90,633 per sqm.
5. Houses rule!
House-hunters by a huge margin are still researching about
houses or landed properties online. About a quarter of all searches for
for-sale properties conducted in Lamudi from January to June of 2015 involved
houses, compared to just 2.28 percent for condos.
6. An average family
needs 32.25 times of its annual income to afford a home in Metro Manila
Based on Metro Manila’s median house price of Php8.8 million,
an average Filipino family with an annual household income of Php273,000
(according to data from the 2012 Family Income and Expenditure Survey) will
need 32.25 times of their annual income in order to afford a home in Metro
Manila. City-wise, Caloocan offers the most affordable homes: median home price
here (Php787,750) is 2.88 times of the annual household income.
7. Quezon City most
popular among online property-hunters
Quezon City—Metro Manila’s largest city—had the greatest volume
of online search traffic, according to Lamudi’s onsite data for January to June
2015. Search volume for the city grew, on average, 22 percent per month during
the same period.
8. Metro Manila condos
getting smaller
Looking at its listings data, Lamudi found that 42 and 41
percent of Metro Manila’s for-sale and for-rent condo inventories have floor
sizes measuring 50 sqm or smaller—an apartment size many would consider as
“shoebox.” This finding has been corroborated by a research conducted by
Colliers International. According to its 2014 fourth quarter report, of the
more than 30,000 preselling condo units expected to be delivered in the Makati
CBD, Fort Bonifacio, Rockwell Center, Ortigas Center, and Eastwood City from
2015 to 2018, 75 percent are studio and one-bedroom units, ranging in size from
18 to 90 sqm.
9. Cities outside Metro
Manila have highest surge in search traffic
Bacolod tops the list of Philippine cities that experienced a
spike in search traffic in the first quarter of 2015, increasing 279 percent
from the fourth quarter of 2014 (October–December) to the first quarter of 2015
(January–March). Bacolod is followed by Antipolo, Tagaytay, Baguio, Davao, and
Bacoor, whose search traffic surged 118, 105, 95, 88, and 80 percent,
respectively.
10. Quezon City has the
most affordable office spaces for rent
Companies looking for an affordable office space to rent should
head to Quezon City to find cheap commercial properties. Lamudi data show that
office rents in Metro Manila’s largest city average Php503.79 per sqm per
month.
11. And Taguig and
Makati have the most expensive
Taguig and Makati offer the most expensive office rents
anywhere in Metro Manila. According to Lamudi, office rents in these two cities
average Php763 and Php635 per sqm per month, respectively. Makati’s priciest
office spaces command monthly rents as high as Php1,400 per sqm, while Taguig’s
go as high as Php1,000 per sqm per month.
12. Women drive
house-hunting
In the Philippines, women are the primary users of real estate
websites. According to Lamudi, 64 percent of online property seekers in the
Philippines are women. This finding is consistent with research conducted in
the West, which has shown that women are the primary users of online property
portals. This makes the Philippines one of few Asian countries where women are
on equal footing with men in terms of educational, economic, and political
opportunities—and in making homebuying decisions.
13. Size matters in
investment condos
If you buy and hold, go for bigger condos, those with three
bedrooms or at least 150 sqm. Although these condos are definitely more
expensive than smaller ones, they offer good returns in terms of capital
appreciation. According Colliers International Philippines, luxury
three-bedroom condos in the three markets it monitors (Makati CBD, Bonifacio
Global City, and Rockwell Center) are expected to appreciate in value by
between 5.1 and 6.3 percent by the end of 2015.
14. Forbes Park is the
most expensive subdivision in the Philippines
Average monthly rents in the very exclusive Forbes Park—home to
business tycoons, foreign dignitaries, and boxing icons—stand at Php402,459,
making the enclave the most expensive area to rent a house anywhere in the
Philippines.
15. Filipino-Americans
prefer houses
Despite the condo boom happening in Metro Manila and other
major cities across the Philippines, it seems that many Filipinos based in the
United States still prefer to purchase houses, at least according to
January–June 2015 search data from Lamudi. More than half (57.83 percent) of
all searches in the Lamudi website were for houses, followed by condos (16.58
percent). The most searched cities? Quezon City, Makati, Manila, Tagaytay, and
Baguio, in this particular order.
16. Cities affordable
for first-time homebuyers
There are cities surrounding Metro Manila abound with
affordable options for first-time homebuyers. These cities include San Jose Del
Monte, Bulacan, where average home price stands at Php495,999; and followed by
San Mateo, Rizal (Php549,259); Dasmariñas, Cavite (Php1.189 million); Imus,
Cavite (Php1.858 million); Bacoor, Cavite (Php2.777 million); Antipolo, Rizal
(Php3.668 million); Santa Rosa, Laguna (Php4.16 million).
17. Condos close to
train stations are more expensive
An average condo located within 100 meters of an MRT station is
at least Php16,645 more expensive per square meter than a similar, newly built
condo situated more than 500 meters away, according to listings data from
Lamudi.
18. Ayala Center,
Century City, and Rockwell Center lead most expensive list
Ayala Center—the commercial core of the Makati CBD—commands the
most expensive condo rent per sqm than any area Metro Manila. Living in the
area, which is within striking distance of Greenbelt, Glorietta, and most of
Makati’s luxury hotels, can set a renter back Php1,144 per sqm per month,
meaning a 100-sqm condo here can command monthly rent of more than Php110,000.
Following Ayala Center are Century City and Rockwell Center in Makati’s
Poblacion area, where condos command monthly rents of Php986 and Php973 per
sqm, respectively.
19. Pricier condos are
not necessarily bigger
On a per-square-meter basis, more expensive condos do not
necessarily mean bigger space. Areas where condos are on average bigger are actually
cheaper on a per-sqm basis. These areas include Ayala Triangle/Apartment Ridge,
where condos average 275 sqm and where monthly rents average Php568 per sqm.
This area is followed by Salcedo Village, where the average size of condos is
126 sqm and average monthly rent stands at Php652 per sqm. In contrast, in the
Mall of Asia Complex and Newport City, the average sizes of condos are 34 and
50 sqm, but monthly rents average Php850 and Php785 per sqm, respectively.
20. Caloocan will be the
second most populous city by 2020
The City of Manila will be overtaken by nearby Caloocan as the
Philippines’ second most populous city by 2020. This is according to an
analysis by Lamudi using the annual average population growth rate issued by
the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2010. Caloocan’s projected 2020
population will be 1.88 million, compared to Manila’s 1.72 million.
21. Eleven PH cities
will have populations of more than 1 million by 2025
Using the annual population growth rates recorded in 2010, 11
cities in the Philippines are projected to have populations of more than 1
million. These are Quezon City (3.95 million), Caloocan (2.115 million), Davao
City (2.056 million), Manila (1.76 million), Dasmariñas (1.27 million),
Antipolo (1.25 million), Zamboanga City (1.25 million), Cebu City (1.14
million), Taguig (1.12 million), Bacoor (1.11 million), and Pasig (1.022
million).
22. Can BPO workers
afford condos?
With an average monthly salary of Php22,500, entry-level
customer care representatives cannot afford to rent a condo in either of these
“affordable” areas: Eastwood City, Pioneer-EDSA, Poblacion (Makati), and San
Antonio (Makati), where average rents range from Php19,838 to Php22,563 per
month. Using the 30 percent rule (spending not more than 30 percent of one’s
monthly income on housing), only those working as managers, with an average
compensation of Php75,000 per month, may only afford to rent a condo in these
select areas.
23. How long Filipinos
should work to buy a home
A salaried Filipino with more than 20 years of work experience
and earning Php1.43 million per year may need 128 years’ worth of his salary in
order to afford a house in Makati where average home price stands at Php184
million. In contrast, this same person needs 4.16 months’ worth of his annual
salary in order to afford a home in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, where the
average home price is Php495,999.
24. Are Filipinos buying
or renting?
Based on its third quarter 2015 search data, Lamudi found that
there is an almost equal proportion of renters and buyers among 18- to
24-year-old online property-hunters (50.2 percent for rent versus 49.8 percent
for sale). Quite interestingly, there is a tendency for property-hunters to
check out for-sale properties online as they get older. Among 25- to
34-year-old users, 57.3 percent are checking out for-sale properties. In the
35–44, 45–54, and 55–64 age groups, it is even higher; 70.8, 72.6, and 71.1
percent of the website’s users, respectively, are checking out for-sale
properties.
25. Most sought-after
locations for land
Quezon City, Tagaytay, and Baguio are the top three most
popular locations among property-hunters looking for land online. These cities
are followed by Davao and Antipolo. “Clearly there are cities preferred by
people researching about land for sale online, and we hope these findings will
give real estate developers insight into how to properly plan their next
projects,” said Lamudi. In addition, the fact that only five Metro Manila
cities were in the top 10 indicate that Filipinos are not too keen into buying
residential land within the National Capital Region, either due to lack of
supply, unaffordability, or both.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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