QC houses, Makati condos ‘most searched’ in 2018

People looking for residential property last year were most interested in homes in Quezon City, indicating that the Philippines’ largest city remained the top choice for homebuyers and renters, according to online real estate platform Lamudi.

In a statement, the company said that other cities that followed Quezon City in the “most searched locations” category—by website visits, page views and inquiries—were Parañaque, Las Piñas, Cebu and Pasig.

“It was not much of a contest, however, as the numbers from all three indicators for Quezon City outperformed the next ranking Parañaque,” Lamudi said. “This showed that people are very much inclined to take up residence in the country’s largest city.”

The company noted, however, that the majority of house property seekers were from Quezon City as well, being mostly females aged 24 to 35 years old.

“Judging by the locations searched, most people are looking for homes near central business districts (CBDs),” it added.

Meanwhile, Lamudi said that online search for condominium units was dominated by locations in Makati City “probably because most desirable condo units are situated within or quite close to CBDs.”

“This was the only category which Quezon City, as a specific location, did not top as Makati City took the top spot,” the company said. “Curiously, Quezon City—and not the other cities having better known financial districts—placed second.”

The data were released recently as part of Lamudi’s report on the Philippine real estate industry across the house, condo, foreclosed property, land and apartment categories.

The report also released that, while the most significant highlights of Philippine real estate in 2018 were focused on Metro Manila, the country’s overall real estate industry remained resilient and maintained a positive investment environment.

Other parts of the country, especially the emerging cities of Iloilo, Clark (Pampanga) and Davao, also demonstrated a substantial improvement in their property industries.

“These can be attributed in part to the national government’s aggressive ‘Build, Build, Build’ program and warmer Philippine-China relations, as it brought along a surge in real estate demand from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation and business process outsourcing firms,” Lamudi said.

For parties interested in acquiring land, Quezon City ranked the highest by a small number of online searches.

This trend continued when it came to property seekers’ area of residence, where Quezon City was only beaten marginally by the combined searches for the next three lower-ranked cities.

Similarly, property seekers—mostly from densely populated locations—looking for foreclosed real estate were most interested in Quezon City locations.

Finally, searches for apartments also showed a marked preference for locations in Quezon City, followed by Makati, Manila, Cebu and Pasig.