Housing loans surged 51% in Q3

The number of housing loans surged by 51 percent year-on-year in the third quarter amid consumer expectations of economic recovery while home prices rose 6.3 percent, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Based on the BSP’s Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI), house prices across the nation recovered in July-September after a decline of 9.4 percent in the second quarter.

This was “partly due to the stronger consumer demand for residential property, particularly townhouses and condominium units,” the BSP said in a statement.

The RREPI is a measure of the average change in the prices of various types of housing units, based on banks’ data on actual mortgage loans granted to acquire new housing units only.

Appraised value

The index is computed using the average appraised value per square meter, weighted by the share of floor area of each type of housing unit to the total floor area of all housing units.

The RREPI is used as an indicator for assessing the real estate and credit market conditions in the country.

The BSP has been releasing the report since the first quarter of 2016. Also, the regulator said the index—which is based on data that banks are required to submit to the BSP—was consistent with the outcome of the third-quarter 2021 Consumer Expectations Survey (CES).

The survey showed a higher percentage of consumers who were preferring to buy real estate property in the third quarter amid signs of economic recovery.

Favorable time

Results of the CES showed that 16.7 percent of Filipino households considered the third quarter of 2021 as a favorable time to buy a house and lot. In the same period of 2020, there were only 14.4 percent of such households.

The BSP said an 11.4-percent jump in house prices in the National Capital Region pushed up the RREPI. In NCR, a “considerable uptick” in prices of townhouse and condominium units outweighed the decline in prices of single houses, both detached and attached.

Nationwide, there was a 37-percent jump in prices of townhouses and condominium units and 146 percent in prices of single houses. Also in the third quarter, 85 percent of the residential real estate loans that banks extended were for the purpose of buying new housing units.

Of all these loans, 43 percent were meant for buying single houses, 39 percent for condominium units and 17 percent for townhouses. INQ