Private building projects slightly up in Q1

PRIVATE construction projects grew by 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to 29,585, from the 28,347 projects registered in the same period the previous year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Friday.

The results are based on the number of building permits issued for the period, the NSO said.

Residential construction projects rose 3.1 percent to 21,424, from 20,784, while non-residential construction jumped 16.9 percent to 4,085, from 3,495.

Combined approved building permits for additions, alterations and repairs of existing structures came in at 4,076, reflecting a 0.2 percent increase from the previous year’s 4,068.

Joe de Guzman, board advisor of the Subdivision and Housing Development Association Inc., said that the estimated number of new projects based on building permits issued is a good indicator of economic performance and regular monitoring is important.

Among the regions, the most number of construction projects were located in Calabarzon with 6,362, accounting for 21.5 percent of the total. Other regions with two thousand or more construction projects were Central Visayas with 3,830 (12.9 percent), Central Luzon with 3,814 (12.9 percent), and National Capital Region with 3,179 (10.7 percent).

Total value of construction for the first quarter of 2012 slumped 6.8 percent to P49.2 billion from the P52.8 billion recorded in the same quarter of 2011.

Among regions, value of construction for the NCR remained highest at P16.8 billion, accounting for 34.3 percent share of the total. Calabarzon and Central Luzon ranked a far second and third with respective shares of 16.5 percent (P8.1 billion) and 13 percent (P6.4 billion).

Average cost per square meter of residential buildings is P8,236. Total value of construction for residential buildings was estimated at P23.3 billion, with a total floor area of 2.8 million square meters, translating to an average cost of P8,236 per square meter. This represents a slight decrease of 4.8 percent compared with the average cost of P8,654 per square meter in 2011.  Riza T. Olchondra