Residential real estate prices rose by 5.7 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2017 as the Residential Real Estate Price Index increased to 117.4 from 111.1 in the same quarter a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.
In a statement, the BSP said that year-on-year, prices of townhouses and condominium units grew faster at 8.1 percent and 14.2 percent compared to the previous quarter, respectively.
Meanwhile, prices of single detached housing units declined slightly by 0.3 percent. Quarter-on-quarter, the real estate price index also went up by 5.2 percent.
The residential real estate price index measures the average change in prices of various types of housing units comprising of single detached/attached house, duplex, townhouse and condominium unit based on data from housing loans granted by universal, commercial and thrift banks.
For 2017, residential property prices, on the average, grew by 3.6 percent compared to the level in the previous year.
The average residential property prices in both the National Capital Region (NCR) and areas outside the NCR also went up by 8.8 percent and 3 percent compared to year-ago prices, respectively.
In the NCR, the higher growth in prices of condominium units and duplexes offset the decline in prices of single detached houses and townhouses. In NCR, prices of all types of housing units increased.
For the fourth quarter of 2017, 80 percent of residential real estate loans were for the purchase of new housing units.
By type of housing units, 52.8 percent of residential property loans were for the acquisition of condominium units, followed by single detached units (39.5 percent) and townhouses (7.3 percent).
By area, condominium units were the most common house purchases in NCR while single detached houses were prevalent in areas outside the NCR. By region, NCR accounted for 52.6 percent of the total number of residential real estate loans granted during the quarter, followed by Calabarzon (23.6 percent), Central Luzon (6.4 percent), Central Visayas (4.7 percent), Western Visayas (4.7 percent), Davao region (2.8 percent) and Northern Mindanao (1.6 percent).
Together, these seven regions accounted for 96.4 percent of total housing loans granted by banks.
The BSP requires all universal, commercial and thrift banks in the Philippines to submit a quarterly report on all residential real estate loans granted for the generation of the price index. Out of the 98 banks covered, 97 banks or 99 percent submitted their reports to the BSP which cover the fourth quarter of 2017.
The real estate price index, which is estimated every quarter based on housing loans granted by banks, provides a valuable tool in assessing the real estate and credit market conditions in the country. It is computed as weighted chain-linked index based on the average appraised value per square meter weighted by the share of floor area of new housing units.