11 Takeaways from

Lamudi Philippines
2015 Research Report

I. LAMUDI SURVEY

1. Metro Manila the most preferred loca4on

More than half (55%) of the surveys respondents cited Metro Manila as their
preferred area for their property purchase:
Quezon City being the most preferred city (19.47%)
MakaF (8.65%)
Manila (8.41%).
Cebu Province is the second most cited area by those looking for a property
(6.97%), followed by the Province of Cavite (6.73%). It should be noted that these
provinces are home to highly populated and popular ciFes for homebuyers,
including Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu, and Mandaue (Cebu Province) and Bacoor, Imus,
and Dasmarias (Cavite).

2. Filipinos in general are op4mis4c about home-owning

Lamudis survey found that 79.6% of respondents said theyre
looking to move house in the future. An overwhelming majority,
94.86%, are searching for houses, while 2.42% are looking for a
condo, and 1.21% looking for townhouse.
The survey also found that 79.57% of the respondents cite the
Internet as their starFng point when searching for a property. They
cited real estate websites, search engines, and social media websites
as their starFng points when searching for property.

3. Reasons for moving house

The survey also asked the respondents reasons why theyre
looking to move house. The most commonly cited reasons were:
Planning to purchase their own property (79.57%)
Area preference (either looking for a beWer area, planning to
move to another city, or planning to live close to relaFves) as
the primary reason for their impending move (14.66%)
Proximity to schools (1.44%)
Work-related relocaFon (2.4%)

4. Real estate professionals observa4ons

Real estate professionals are equally opFmisFc about the
industry. In the survey, 36% of them said that banks more
stringent housing loan approval has liWle or moderate eect on
the housing market, specically the buyer side.

In addiFon, 51% and 53% of them said that poliFcal climate and
economic uncertainty will have minimal eect on the housing
market

5. More real estate professionals now online

The survey showed that 59% of the surveyed professionals
cited online lisFngs pla^orm as their most widely used online
channel to adverFse their property lisFngs.

In addiFon, only few of the surveyed professionals use oine
channels to adverFse their lisFngs: tradiFonal media (12%)
and their organizaFons MLS (10%), and referral from fellow
agents (1%).

II. LAMUDI LISTINGS DATA

6. Ten Philippine ci4es now have average

home price of over Php10 million
City
Makati
Muntinlupa
Taguig
Mandaluyong
Pasig
San Juan
Cebu
Quezon City
Tagaytay
Paraaque

Ave. House Price

(Php)
217.3 million
55.88 million
34.37 million
21.08 million
18.96 million
17.66 million
15.03 million
14.75 million
13.35 million
12.18 million

 Using Paranaque as an example, a homebuyer who plans to

buy a house in this city needs to make Php4.8 million per
year (using the 2.5 rule) in order to aord the citys average
home price.
According to Investopedia, a prospecFve homeowner can
aord to mortgage a home that costs approximately 2.5
Fmes his gross annual income. If a person makes Php50,000
per month (Php600,000 per year), he can aord a property
that costs Php1.5 million.

7. Maka4 and Taguig are the Philippines most

expensive condo markets
Lamudi analysis shows that MakaF and Taguig has some of
the Philippines most expensive condos in Q1 2015. MakaFs
average condo price (per sqm) is Php139,503 (US$3,090),
while Taguig condos have average asking prices of
Php125,031 per sqm (US$2,770).

However, Metro Manila is considered a bargain

when you compare it to other key ci4es in Asia
Hong Kong
Singapore
Tokyo
Shanghai
Bangkok
Price in USD per sqm

Source: Global Property Guide

$22,814
$15,251
$10,784
$6,932
$3,952

But more expensive than:

Jakarta
$2,766
Kuala Lumpur $2,616

8. More property developers focusing on

aordable housing
HLURB data shows total licenses to sell declined 15.35% y-on-y to
August 2015, due mainly to the drop in the issuances of non-
residenFal projects (memorial parks and parking units).
There has been an increase in the number of new applicaFons for
low-income housing. The number of LTS for socialized housing,
doubled as of August 2015 (year to date) from the same period in
2014.
There have also been signicant increases in numbers of LTS
issued by the HLURB for mid-income housing (56.58% increase)
and low-cost condominiums (22.18%).

III. LAMUDI ONSITE SEARCH DATA

9. Metro Manilas share of onsite search

volume decreasing
Although Metro Manila hogs is the most searched
region in the Philippines for online house-hunters, its
share of search volume among all regions is
decreasing:
78.55% in Q2 2014
63.21% in Q3 2014
58.9% in Q4 2014
55.1% in Q1 2015

In contrast, other regions saw their search volume and

share increase every quarter:
CALABARZON
Central Visayas
7.89% in Q2 2014
6.09% in Q2 2014
12.67% in Q3 2014
8.66% in Q3 2014
13.29% in Q4 2014
9.99% in Q4 2014
14.71% in Q1 2015
11.99% in Q1 2015
Search volume for CALABARZONs surged on average 130% quarter-on-
quarter from Q2 2014 to Q1 2015, while that for Central Visayas increased
on average 104% quarter-on-quarter from Q2 2014 to Q1 2015.

10. Most searched ci4es

Quezon City is the most-searched city, generated 244,456 searches
for Q1 2015, of which 37.3% were searches for for-sale properFes
(regardless of property type) and 15.6% were searches for rental
properFes.
MakaF is the Philippines second most searched city. Of the total
116,451 searches conducted in the same period, 51% were for rental
properFes, while 33.9% were for for-sale properFes.
Paranaque, Pasig, and Mandaluyong are the third, fourth, and jh
most searched ciFes in the Philippines. On average, search trac
increased 75%, 71%, and 74%, respecFvely, every quarter from Q2
2014 to Q1 2015.

11. Most searched property types

Condos were the most searched property type among users
looking for rental properFes, while houses were preferred by
those looking for property for sale
Quezon City is the most searched city for houses for sale: 54.8%
of those looking at the city are searching for houses for sale,
while 8.7% are searching for house for rent
MakaF generated the greatest volume of searches for condos,
of which 61.1% were for rentals and 33.6% percent were
looking for for-sale condos