REAL estate has become more expensive and posted a double-digit increase in prices in the first quarter of the year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Based on the BSP’s Residential Real Estate Prices Index (RREPI) report, residential real estate prices posted a 10.2-percent growth in the January to March period of 2023.
BSP data showed residential real estate prices grew 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2022 and 7.7 percent in the last quarter of 2022.
“The residential real estate prices of various types of new housing units in the Philippines continued to grow faster in Q1 [first quarter] 2023 at 10.2 percent year-on-year [YoY], but grew at a slower pace of 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter [QoQ], compared with the Q4 [fourth quarter] 2022 results,” BSP said.
The data showed this was driven by the 11.4-percent increase in residential real estate prices in Areas Outside the National Capital Region (AONCR).
The growth of residential real estate prices in the AONCR was only at 5.1 percent in the first quarter and 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Prices of residential real estate in NCR or Metro Manila, however, slowed to 7.3 percent in the first three months of 2023. This was a significant slowdown from the 16.1 percent posted in the last quarter of 2022 and 9.7 percent posted in the first quarter of last year.
“On a QoQ basis, residential property prices expanded by 4.4 percent in the AONCR, but contracted by 4.3 percent in the NCR,” BSP noted.
By housing type, BSP said, prices of duplex housing units, single-detached/attached houses, townhouses, and condominium units increased the year-on-year growth in the nationwide RREPI.
The prices of duplex housing units increased by 22.1 percent; single-detached/attached houses, 17 percent; townhouses, 1.8 percent; and condominium units, 1.2 percent.
The 1.4 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth in the RREPI was attributed to the higher prices of single-detached/attached houses by 4.7 percent and townhouses by 3.8 percent.
However, prices of duplex housing units and condominium units declined by 16.4 percent and 5.1 percent QoQ, respectively.
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