Cebu’s residential sector enjoys a discount compared to projects located within the country’s capital. The proliferation of both local and national developers in Cebu has raised land and property values. This was complemented by the rising demand for integrated communities, resort-oriented developments, and projects on the higher end of the price segments.
In 2019, launches and take-up in the province reached a record-high 12,400 units and 10,600 units, respectively. Given the impact of the pandemic on investor appetite for residential units, launches and take-up in the first nine months of 2020 reached only 2,000 units and 4,100 units, down 80 percent and 54 percent year on year, respectively. Colliers projects a slow rebound in residential demand in the latter half of 2021.
The demand for mid-income condominium units has been driving launches and take-up in Metro Cebu. In first nine months, the mid-income segment accounted for 51 percent of take-up during the period. This indicated the rising purchasing power of Cebuano investors and end-users over the past few years. We expect projects under the segment to partially fuel the recovery of demand by end-2021 to 2022.
We recommend that developers continue serving the requirements of Cebu’s end-user market. Aside from condominiums, we believe that house and lot projects remain attractive among overseas Filipino workers . Anecdotally, OFWs are one of the major drivers of Cebu’s horizontal residential market as they are also the end-users.
Indeed, we are facing challenging times but uncertainties in the market have been compelling both developers and investors to pivot. So expect more recalibrations in the Philippine property landscape.The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.