Philippine property developers have been increasing their offerings to the Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) segment in the Metro Cebu property market, according to new research.
It is Metro Cebu Marketview research report, CBRE noted that middle-income earners are largely driving residential demand. Local and national developers have been favourably responsive to the surge in demand from the Cebu residential market.
CBRE noted how the demand is supported by favourable business sentiment, increased purchasing power of OFW families, low interest rates and flexible payment options.
Mid-market projects continue to take the majority of the Cebu residential market. As of the first half of 2015, approximately 55 percent of the on-going condominium projects for sale are of the mid-market type, 32 percent at the high-end and 13 percent for what CBRE described as affordable types.
Meanwhile, average monthly take-up rates for residential condominiums expanded at a slower pace of 5 .50 percent – from 10.79 percent of the same period last year.
Demand in the mid-market residential segment was seen to be strong in the first half of 2015 with take-up rate of 6.15 percent and 4.48 percent for the high-end residential market.
In terms of unit types, studio units continued to account for a large chunk of supply with 13,441 units – or 51 percent of total supply. One-bedroom units accounted for 27 percent of supply with 7,224 units, while 2-bedroom units accounted for 17 percent of supply.
According to CBRE, the majority of units were developed by local developers with the rest coming from national developers. Leading local developers included Primary Homes, Cebu Land Masters, Taft Property and Fuente Triangle Realty Development, while national players Ayala Land, Megaworld and Filinvest Land have significant market share in Metro Cebu.
Middle-income earners constituted the source of demand for these developments.
New home owners, meanwhile, were the main drivers of residential sales in the mid-market class of residential condominium projects.
The outlook for the Cebu residential market continues to be promising. Expected business upturn is expected to simultaneously expand with the ongoing real estate developments in the province.
All types of residential condominium market segments in Metro Cebu has pegged its positive trend with the sanguine sentiment of the Philippine economy, noted CBRE.
