A report from real estate portal Lamudi.com.ph has found that most Filipinos are still incapable of buying their own properties and are therefore opting to just rent their homes.
The report, titled ?Real Estate in the Emerging Markets,? provides a overview of the property sector in 16 emerging countries, including the Philippines.
The customer survey examined house-hunting habits among buyers and renters. For renters, affordability of the property emerged as the key reason why many Filipinos choose not to buy their own home. More than 60 percent of renters surveyed said they could not afford to buy property.
For buyers, the main driver for owning property is security. Nearly three-quarters of buyers cited security as their primary motivation for purchasing a home.
According to the survey of real estate agents, the country?s economic outlook is seen as the top constraint on the property market, reflecting current concerns about a potential slowdown.
However, agents and brokers remain overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of the market. More than 90 percent describe their outlook for the next 12 months as positive.
Lamudi?s global co-founder and managing director Kian Moini said: ?The primary conclusion that we have drawn from our research is that the future for the Philippine property sector is extremely bright. In fact, two-thirds of the real estate agents we surveyed are expecting growth of eight percent or higher in the property market this year. The country?s real estate market has emerged as one of the most promising in the Asia Pacific region.?
Jose Romarx Salas, head of research and consulting at Pinnacle Real Estate Consulting Services, said the key challenge for the Philippine property market was finding enough land to accommodate development.
?In Metro Manila, that?s the challenge: looking for suitable land. Some developers are even willing to bid high, which pushes up already skyrocketing land prices in the capital,? he said.
