Century chair bullish about RP property mkt
Continuous demand for housing, buoyed by remittances from 11 million Filipinos working overseas, a strong banking system, and the market’s conscious move to put money in properties to hedge against inflation are the strongest forces that continue to drive the growth of Philippine real estate.
Amb. Jose E.B. Antonio, chairman of Century Properties Group, told business news channels CNBC and Bloomberg that such factors distinguish the
“The profile of the Philippine property market is such that there is a very big gap in terms of demand as compared to the annual output of the property developers,” he explained to CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia anchor Martin Soong, referring to current figures that the country’s housing backlog is at 3.8 million units.
This demand is further magnified by the “phenomenon” of the growing middle class, the Philippine property sector’s principal market, which includes 11 million OFWs who are expected to remit $16 billion this year and historically devote 30 percent of their income to housing, Antonio told Bloomberg NOW’s Catherine Yang. There can therefore be an effective demand for P240 billion buying power for real estate or housing.
A much stronger Philippine banking system is also one of the reasons why we will never experience the
Antonio also pointed out that there is a growing consciousness in the market to invest in tangible assets, like property, to hedge against inflation. “Because bank rates are very low, people perceive that it’s better to buy real estate or other forms of fixed assets that go up in value due to inflation than put their money in the bank… And Filipinos, as most Asians, regard property as a primary investment.”
He cited other strong areas of growth in the property market, including office space rentals, tourism and infrastructure.
Century Properties Inc. is also developing a residential tower on
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