posted February 27, 2016 at
11:20 pm by
Roderick T. dela Cruz [thestandard.com.ph]
A typical house and lot in
Makati City’s premier subdivisions costs more than P200 million, according to a
research by online real estate portal Lamudi Philippines.
Lamudi Philippines, in its
white paper presented to journalists, says Makati City is the most expensive
housing market, both for residential condos and landed houses, based on more
than 60,000 property listings on its website.
Rodel Ambas, head of
content at Lamudi Philippines, says the average price of houses in Makati stood
at P217.3 million as of the first quarter of 2015. Home prices in Makati actually varied, based
on gated communities, starting from P35 million in Magallanes Village and P76
million in San Lorenzo Village to P80 million in Bel-Air, P200 million in
Dasmariñas Village, P236.3 million in Urdaneta Village and P382.9 million in
Forbes Park.
Lamudi Philippines chief
executive Jacqueline van den Ende
(Photo credit to Lamudi
Philippines)
Makati City is way ahead of
the second most expensive housing market, Muntinlupa City, home to Ayala
Alabang Village, where the average home price was P55.8 million. Taguig City, where McKinley Hills Village is
located, ranks third with P34.4 million, followed by Mandaluyong, which is
known for Wack-Wack Village with P21.1 million.
Completing the list of
cities with highest home prices are Pasig (P19 million), San Juan (17.7
million), Cebu City (15 million), Quezon City (14.6 million), Tagaytay (P13.4
million) and Parañaque (12.2 million).
The prices are based on
actual listings at lamudi.com.ph, the top online real estate website used by
homebuyers, sellers, developers and brokers.
“These ten Philippine
cities now have an average home price of over P10 million,” Ambas says.
He says to buy homes in
these cities, a family needs to be earning millions in a year. He says in Parañaque City, the least costly
among the 10 cities, a buyer should be earning P4.8 million a year to afford
the monthly mortgage for a P12-million home, using the 2.5 rule.
He says according to this
rule, a homebuyer can afford to mortgage a home that is 2.5 times of his or her
annual income. “If you are making
P50,000 a month or P600,000 per year, multiply that by 2.5, the amount of
property that you can afford is ….P1.5 million, which is extremely far from the
prices in the 10 cities we mention,” he says.
“That rule is something to
keep in mind when looking to buy a property in the future,” says Ambas.
The Lamudi white paper also
shows that Makati and Taguig are the most expensive condo markets in the
Philippines.
As of the first quarter of
2015, Makati’s average condo price was P139,503 ($3,090) per square meter,
while Taguig condos had an average asking price of P125,031 per sqm ($2,770).
Ambas says the consolation
is that Makati remains a bargain when compared to other key cities in
Asia. Condo price in Hong Kong is around
$22,814 per square meter, while properties in Singapore sell for $15,251 per
square meter.
Lamudi Philippines
co-founder and chief executive Jacqueline van den Ende says the numbers are
based on the property listings on the company’s website as of the first quarter
of 2015. Lamudi, which is present in 34 countries,
considers the Philippines as one of its top markets, she says.
Lamudi Philippines acquired
MyProperty.ph last year to have a dominant position in the online real estate
market in the country. Van den Ende
says along with Mexico, the Philippines will receive the bulk of the $31.4-million
fund raised by Lamudi Group from investors recently.
“Lamudi Philippines, all
around the globe, is the number one focus country for Lamudi. Why? Because the timing here is just right.
Our real estate market is booming. More
importantly, we are ready to move online here,” she says.
Lamudi is a part of the
Rocket Internet Group of Germany, the one behind other successful e-commerce
ventures in the Philippines such as Lazada, Zalora, FoodPanda and Carmudi. “The whole shift from offline to online is going
very rapidly and that is driving the success for many e-commerce
companies...And the Philippines is the number one focus country because it has
a lot of potential in e-commerce and online business,” she says.
Van den Ende, a Dutch
citizen, says to support the expansion of Lamudi in the Philippines, the
company appointed German investment banker Benedict Faber as the chief
operating officer.
“In 2016, we want to expand
the dominant position of Lamudi and MyProperty, which have a market share of 55
percent of total online real estate market, or almost two to three times bigger
than our closest competitor. MyProperty has 150,000 listings while Lamudi has
60,000 listings. We want to really
ensure to get every single property for sale or for rent on to the website, so
that we are true to our mission of bringing transparency to the real estate
market in the Philippines,” she says.
“Together, we have 1.5
million people searching for property on our sites every month,” says Van den
Ende.
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