Residential real estate prices rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter as the Residential Real Estate Price Index (RREPI) increased to 117.2 from 111.8 for the same quarter a year ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Saturday.

Year-on-year, prices of townhouses, condominium units, and single detached housing units grew by 13.3 percent, 9.1 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, prices of duplex units (which account for only 0.36 percent of total new housing units reported) declined by 4.4 percent year-on-year. Quarter-on-quarter, the index edged higher by 0.8 percent.

The index measures the average change in prices of various types of housing units comprising of single detached house, duplex, townhouse, and condominium unit based on data from housing loans granted by universal, commercial, and thrift banks.

Average residential property prices in the National Capitol Region and areas outside the National Capitol Region climbed by 5.1 percent and 4.1 percent compared to year-ago prices, respectively.

In NCR, the growth in prices of condominium units and townhouses outweighed the decline in prices of single detached houses and duplexes. All types of housing units in areas outside NCR registered price increases.

For the second quarter, about seven in ten (77.1 percent) residential real estate loans were for the acquisition of new housing units.

By type of housing unit, 46.1 percent of residential property loans were for the purchase of condominium units, followed by single detached units (45.6 percent) and townhouses (7.8 percent).

By area, majority of loans granted in the NCR were for the purchase of condominium units, while loans granted in areas outside NCR were for single detached houses.

By region, NCR accounted for 45.2 percent of the total number of loans granted during the quarter, followed by Calabarzon (27.9 percent), central Luzon (6.9 percent), central Visayas (5.9 percent), western Visayas (5 percent), Davao Region (3.5 percent) and northern Mindanao (1.7 percent).

The NCR and six other regions accounted for 96.1 percent of total housing loans granted by banks. DMS