Residential home prices up by 7.7% in Q4 – BSP

RESIDENTIAL property price growth accelerated to 7.7 percent year on year in the fourth quarter of 2022 but the pace was a slower 2.2 percent quarter on quarter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported on Friday.

Year-on-year growth three months earlier was 6.5 percent. The quarter-onquarter gain, meanwhile, was higher at 4.6 percent, data released by the BSP showed.

Broken down, residential property prices in the National Capital Region (NCR) increased by 16.1 percent year on year while those for the rest of the country expanded by 4.5 percent.

Quarter on quarter, meanwhile, Metro Manila prices contracted by 2.4 percent while those in areas outside the metropolis grew by 4.8 percent.

The central bank attributed the higher prices to stronger consumer demand, especially for duplex housing units, condominium units and singledetached/attached houses.

“In Q4 (fourth quarter) 2022, prices of duplex housing units, condominium units and single-detached/attached houses contributed positively to the YoY (year on year) growth in the nationwide RREPI (residential real estate price index) as the indices increased by 42.9 percent, 12.9 percent and 10.0 percent, respectively,” the BSP said.

“By contrast, prices of townhouses contributed negatively for the second consecutive quarter, as the index contractsed by 6.8 percent,” it added.

As for quarter-on-quarter growth, the BSP said that it was due to higher prices of duplex housing units (up 37.6 percent), townhouses (8.9 percent) and single-detached/attached houses (3.2 percent). Prices of condominium units, on the other hand, declined by 4.9 percent.

Meanwhile, residential real estate loans granted for all types of new housing units fell by 10.3 percent year on year as those in the NCR and outside the NCR contracted by 22.0 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Nationwide availment of housing loans also fell by 4.5 percent quarter on quarter following a 23.5-percent drop in the NCR that outpaced the 8.5-percent growth elsewhere.

New housing units accounted for 81.1 percent of residential real estate loans.

By type, most of the loans were used to purchase single-detached/attached houses (47.2 percent), followed by condominium units (33.0 percent) and townhouses (18.9 percent).

Condominium units were the most purchased in Metro Manila while buyers outside the metropolis bought singledetached/attached houses.

By region, 30.5 percent of the loans granted were from the NCR.

The balance was distributed as follows: Calabarzon (33.7 percent), Central Luzon (12.9 percent), Central Visayas (6.9 percent), Western Visayas (5.9 percent), Davao Region (3.0 percent) and Northern Mindanao (1.5 percent).

The NCR and the six regions com

bined accounted for 94.4 percent of total housing loans granted by banks.

The average appraised value of new housing units stood at P74,776 per square meter in the fourth quarter of last year. It averaged P127,175 in Metro Manila and P49,475 in the rest of the country.

The RREPI, a measure of the average change in the prices of various types of housing units, is used as an indicator for assessing the real estate and credit market conditions in the country.