By Rizal Raoul Reyes
GLOBAL property web site Lamudi Philippines recently reported that prospective homebuyers and real-estate professionals remain bullish on the local property market in 2016.
Lamudi used the data it gathered from its second quarter 2014 to first quarter 2015 research survey covering real-estate professionals and its web site’s users.
“We see the property market to remain buoyant in 2016. Oil prices are at historic low, and for an oil-importing country like the Philippines, it’s a good thing. Savings from reduced transportation costs can help boost consumption due to higher spending power. Filipinos are making bigger purchases, such as cars, because of this, and it won’t be surprising to see if more people are considering buying properties in the near future,” said Jacqueline van den Ende, founder and CEO of Lamudi Philippines, in a news statement.
One of the prominent findings of Lamudi revealed that Metro Manila is still the most preferred location, noting that more than half (55.05 percent) of the respondents cited Metro Manila as their preferred area for their property purchase, with Quezon City being the most preferred city (19.47 percent), followed by Makati (8.65 percent), and Manila (8.41 percent).
Cebu came in second, with 6.97 percent choosing it for property prospects, followed by Cavite getting 6.73 percent.
In its survey, Lamudi also discovered that 79.6 percent of respondents planned to buy a house in the future, with a huge majority—94.86 percent—is searching for houses, while 2.42 percent are looking for a condo, and 1.21 percent looking for townhouse.
Furthermore, the survey also revealed that 79.57 percent of the respondents used the Internet for their initial search for a property.
In the survey, respondents cited the reasons they want to buy a house. The top reasons were: area preference (either looking for a better area, planning to move to another city, or planning to live close to relatives) as the primary reason for their impending move (14.66 percent), proximity to schools (1.44 percent) and work-related relocation (2.4 percent).
“In our survey, almost 80 percent of respondents are looking to move house in the near future, and 80 percent of them are planning to buy their own property, which is a telling sign of Filipinos’ bullish attitude toward the job market and the overall economy,” van den Ende said.
The survey also pointed out the optimism of the real-estate professionals, with 36 percent of respondents saying that banks’ rigid loan approval has little or moderate effect on the housing market, specifically the buyer side. In addition, Lamudi said 51 percent and 53 percent of them said that political climate and economic uncertainty will have minimal effect on the housing market.
Lamudi’s survey also showed that respondents (59 percent) used the Internet to advertise and market their property listings. Furthermore, Lamudi said that a small number of surveyed professionals use offline channels to advertise their listings: traditional media (12 percent) and their organization’s multiple listing system (10 percent) and referral from fellow agents (1 percent).