LESSONS LEARNED IN 2015

Property portal Lamudi said  2015 was a good year for Philippine real estate. 

In the first part, we gave a rundown of 12 of the 25 lessons in property development in 2015.

The remaining 13 are as follows:

13.  Forbes Park is the most expensive subdivision in the Philippines
Average monthly rents in the very exclusive Forbes Park—home to business tycoons, foreign dignitaries, and boxing icons—stand at Php402,459, making the enclave the most expensive area to rent a
house anywhere in the Philippines.

15. Filipino-Americans prefer houses
Despite the condo boom happening in Metro Manila and other major cities across the Philippines, it seems that many Filipinos based in the United States still prefer to purchase houses, at least according to
January–June 2015 search data from Lamudi. More than half (57.83 percent) of all searches in the Lamudi website were for houses, followed by condos (16.58 percent). The most searched cities? Quezon
City, Makati, Manila, Tagaytay, and Baguio, in this particular order.

16. Cities affordable for first-time homebuyers
There are cities surrounding Metro Manila abound with affordable options for first-time homebuyers. These cities include San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, where average home price stands at Php495,999; and followed by San Mateo, Rizal (Php549,259); Dasmariñas, Cavite (Php1.189 million); Imus, Cavite (Php1.858 million); Bacoor, Cavite (Php2.777 million); Antipolo, Rizal (Php3.668 million); Santa Rosa, Laguna (Php4.16 million).

17. Condos close to train stations are more expensive
An average condo located within 100 meters of an MRT station is at least Php16,645 more expensive per square meter than a similar, newly built condo situated more than 500 meters away, according to
listings data from Lamudi.

18. Ayala Center, Century City, and Rockwell Center lead most expensive list
Ayala Center—the commercial core of the Makati CBD—commands the most expensive condo rent per sqm than any area Metro Manila. Living in the area, which is within striking distance of Greenbelt, Glorietta, and most of Makati’s luxury hotels, can set a renter back Php1,144 per sqm per month, meaning a 100-sqm condo here can command monthly rent of more than Php110,000. Following Ayala Center are Century City and Rockwell Center in Makati’s Poblacion area, where condos command monthly rents 
of Php986 and Php973 per sqm, respectively.

19. Pricier condos are not necessarily bigger
On a per-square-meter basis, more expensive condos do not necessarily mean bigger space. Areas where condos are on average bigger are actually cheaper on a per-sqm basis. These areas include Ayala Triangle/Apartment Ridge, where condos average 275 sqm and where monthly rents average Php568 per sqm. This area is followed by Salcedo Village, where the average size of condos is 126 sqm and average monthly rent stands at Php652 per sqm. In contrast, in the Mall of Asia Complex and Newport City, the average sizes of condos are 34 and 50 sqm, but monthly rents average Php850 and Php785 per sqm, respectively.

20. Caloocan will be the second most populous city by 2020
The City of Manila will be overtaken by nearby Caloocan as the Philippines’ second most populous city by 2020. This is according to an analysis by Lamudi using the annual average population growth rate issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2010. Caloocan’s projected 2020 population will be 1.88 million, compared to Manila’s 1.72 million.

21. Eleven PH cities will have populations of more than 1 million by 2025
Using the annual population growth rates recorded in 2010, 11 cities in the Philippines are projected to have populations of more than 1 million. These are Quezon City (3.95 million), Caloocan (2.115 million), Davao City (2.056 million), Manila (1.76 million), Dasmariñas (1.27 million), Antipolo (1.25 million), Zamboanga City (1.25 million), Cebu City (1.14 million), Taguig (1.12 million), Bacoor (1.11 million), and Pasig (1.022 million).

22. Can BPO workers afford condos?
With an average monthly salary of Php22,500, entry-level customer care representatives cannot afford to rent a condo in either of these “affordable” areas: Eastwood City, Pioneer-EDSA, Poblacion (Makati), and San Antonio (Makati), where average rents range from Php19,838 to Php22,563 per month. Using the 30 percent rule (spending not more than 30 percent of one’s monthly income on housing), only those working as managers, with an average compensation of Php75,000 per month, may only afford to rent a condo in these select areas.

23. How long Filipinos should work to buy a home
A salaried Filipino with more than 20 years of work experience and earning Php1.43 million per year may need 128 years’ worth of his salary in order to afford a house in Makati where average home price stands at Php184 million. In contrast, this same person needs 4.16 months’ worth of his annual salary in order to afford a home in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan, where the average home price is Php495,999.

24. Are Filipinos buying or renting?
Based on its third quarter 2015 search data, Lamudi found that there is an almost equal proportion of renters and buyers among 18- to 24-year-old online property-hunters (50.2 percent for rent versus 49.8 percent for sale). Quite interestingly, there is a tendency for property-hunters to check out for-sale properties online as they get older. Among 25- to 34-year-old users, 57.3 percent are checking out for-sale properties. In the 35–44, 45–54, and 55–64 age groups, it is even higher; 70.8, 72.6, and 71.1 percent of the website’s users, respectively, are checking out for-sale properties.

25. Most sought-after locations for land
Quezon City, Tagaytay, and Baguio are the top three most popular locations among property-hunters looking for land online. These cities are followed by Davao and Antipolo. “Clearly there are cities preferred by people researching about land for sale online, and we hope these findings will give real estate developers insight into how to properly plan their next projects,” said Lamudi. In addition, the fact that only five Metro Manila cities were in the top 10 indicate that Filipinos are not too keen into buying residential land within the National Capital Region, either due to lack of supply, unaffordability, or both.

Source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/special-features/lessons-learned-2015