Home loan borrower growth slowed

The number of Filipinos availing home financing in the second quarter grew a modest 6.5 percent, a significant decline from the 82.3 percent growth posted in the same period last year amid the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) aggressive tightening on interest rate. .

In the latest Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI) released Friday, Sept. 30 , BSP said that the growth was mainly driven by borrowers from areas outside Metro Manila, which posted a 17 percent growth in numbers.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), the number of residential real estate loans (RRELs) contracted by 7.7 percent, according to the BSP.

But compared with the first-quarter, RRELs jumped 12 percent from April to June this year.

The latest housing loan report by the BSP came a week after the Monetary Board raised key interest rates for the fifth time this year to tame inflation amid a struggling peso.

Since May, BSP has jacked up policy rates by 225 basis points.

Meanwhile, the BSP also reported that the residential real estate prices of various types of new housing units in the contoured to rise in the second-quarter, albeit slower than the previous quarter’s year-on-year growth.

However, housing prices recovered from the quarter-on-quarter contraction registered in the first three-months 2022.

The Residential Real Estate Price Index rose by 2.6 percent and 1.6 percent compared with year- ago and quarter-ago levels, respectively.

By area, residential property prices in the NCR grew by 6.3 percent year-on-year, primarily driven by the increase in the prices of townhouses and condominium units, which outweighed the decrease in the prices of single-detached/attached houses.

Similarly, property prices in areas outside NCR rose by 2.2 percent as all types of housing units registered an upturn, except for townhouses, which declined marginally.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, residential property prices rose by 0.2 percent and 2.2 percent in Metro Manila and areas outside NCR, respectively.

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The article was originally published in Manila Bulletin and written by Chino S. Leyco.