One Year Later: Are Property Seekers Buying Again?
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Looking at the first three weeks following the first lockdown in the country compared to the three-week period prior to that announcement, rental properties received a larger share of all leads than purchase listings. In spite of rental properties constituting a significantly smaller portion of all listings on the Lamudi platform, seekers had chosen to look into renting as opposed to buying properties during the onset of the pandemic.
That window of time saw other interesting changes in property seekers’ behavior. Fifty-four percent of seekers surveyed had shown interest in purchasing houses in the weeks following the first COVID-19 related quarantine ruling, whereas 83 percent were previously only considering condominiums and no other property type. Buyers showed an openness to new locations for their property investment, with seekers looking exclusively for properties in central business districts (CBDs) pre-pandemic looking into areas outside CBDs as well after the announcement of the enhanced community quarantine. In spite of the crisis, the majority of high-end property seeker budgets remained unchanged in the weeks following the announcement of the first lockdown.
As cities shifted in between different quarantine levels and discussions over a vaccine progressed towards the end of the year, had these trends remained? Are property seekers buying again, and what has driven these changes?
Investment zeal recovers in the latter half of 2020
Looking into data in the second half of 2020, the appetite for property investment appears to have recovered. Whereas purchase listings contributed only 47 percent of all leads in the first half of 2020, it had surmounted its performance amid the onset of the pandemic and increased to 57% of all leads in the second half of last year.
This may be supported by an improving overall business confidence index, which according to the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) report had “reverted to positive territory” at 10.6 percent in 4Q 2020 from -5.3 percent in the previous quarter. The optimism may be attributed to eased quarantines and the re-opening of businesses as companies adapted to the changes in consumer lifestyles.
Interest in houses, large spaces continued to grow
The demand for houses remained strong in the second half of the year, with the property type having the largest share of both pageviews and leads for that period. KB Reality Group data revealed that house continued to be the most popular property type in January 2021 and is expected to sustain positive growth throughout the year.
This is supported by emerging consumer trends such as the desire for open areas, multi-purpose spaces, and extra storage. House owners are free to renovate and extend their living areas as they wish within their property line–a benefit that may be enticing property seekers wishing to build home offices or even private study rooms for their children from the ground up.
CBD luxury market finishes the year strong
Cities within central business districts retained demand from their high-end property seeker market. The KB Reality Group data for the latter half of 2020 revealed that luxury properties in CBDs both for sale and for rent continued to attract demand, with all listings priced 6M and up growing in terms of pageviews year-on-year and listings priced above 20M owning the largest share of pageviews for cities with CBDs in January 2021. The upscale property segment appears to remain resilient throughout 2020.
Fringe cities post impressive growth
Possibly due in part to the openness of buyers to alternate investment locations for real estate, the leads for properties in fringe cities towards the end of 2020 posted tremendous growth. Among these fringe cities were Caloocan, Marikina and Valenzuela.
New buyers looking into these cities may have been attracted by the local governments’ commendable response to the pandemic outbreak, and impressed by their satisfaction ratings towards the end of the year. KB Reality Group data identified Pateros as a city to watch in 2021, as leads for the city increased 149 percent year-on-year in 2H2020. Given its strategic location between two prime CBDs, Pateros hosts a growing market of yuppies and young individuals entering the workforce.
