WITH barely three months before the year ends, residential supply remains intact, as delivery of new condominium units continue for the rest of 2015.
 
Pinnacle Real Estate Consulting Services Inc. revealed in its Market Insight Report for September that around 5,500 units are expected to be finished in major business districts in the country before the end of the year.
 
The supply would come from the Park Terraces Tower in Makati; the West Tower, Meranti Tower and Sequoia Tower in Bonifacio Global City; and the One Shangri-La Place North Tower in Ortigas Center.
 
“Real-estate developers are typically motivated to turnover units for them to collect the full payment and realize their profits,” said Jojo Salas, director for research and consulting of Pinnacle.
 
Major developers, likewise, have launched their respective projects to add to the inventory.
 
The SM Group had kicked off SM Development Corp.’s Trees Residences, Grass Residences and Shore Residences 2—all with a total of more than 9,000 units.
 
DMCI, on the other hand, introduced its Asteria and Ivorywood projects. Meanwhile, Ortigas & Co. launched The Maven—the third tower of its Capitol Commons project in Pasig City.
 
Consistently, the Ayala Land Group has packaged its residential projects with mixed-use and township developments.
 
While the numbers of these developments appear to be high, a housing backlog continues to be a challenge for the real-estate industry, which, according to the estimates of the National Economic and Development Authority, is more than 800,000 annually.
 
Almost half or close to 400,000 households a year can afford to buy housing units, while the remaining households are mainly from the informal-settler families.
 
“The private real-estate developers typically target to carve a market share from this 400,000-per-annum demand for housing all over the Philippines,” Salas noted.
 
To help them own a place they can call “home,” the economic housing loan ceiling of P1.25 million has been increased to P1.7 million, since the adjustment was approved by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council in June.
 
Salas lauded this initiative that will give an opportunity for average income earners living in highly urbanized areas to avail themselves of a higher loan for economic housing.
 
“The general notion is that average-income earners are priced out in highly urbanized areas and are forced to buy through mortgage housing units that are far from their places of work,” he said.
 
With ample housing supply, the stability of condo rental rates are also seen to continue.
 
It has been noted that lease fees have been generally steady on the back of varied choices in the market.
 
High-end or luxury condominium units still command the highest charges at P300,000 per month, especially for bigger areas hovering at the 300-square-meter level.
 
Typically, a premium three-bedroom unit ranges from P120,000 to P250,000, depending on the size, location and furnishing.
 
For studio and one-bedroom units, leasing costs from P15,000 to P30,000, and may reach the P50,000 month range, also based on the location, furnishing and amenities of the vertical residential project.
 
The central business district of Makati has condo rental rates from P575 per sq m to P1,100 per sq m on a monthly basis.
 
In Rockwell units have a higher base of P700 per sq m a month, but have the same upper range of P1,100 per sq m per month.
 
Cheaper rates are available in Bonifacio Global City, with condo units offered at a lower monthly rental rate of P600 per sq m up to P1,000 per sq m.
 
“Quoting rentals of residential condominium in square meter is not an exact science but is very useful in computing for yields,” Salas said of the potential of a return on investment when leasing such an acquired property.