MANILA — Dot Property, a digital media company serving property seekers, remains optimistic about the Philippines’ property market despite rising interest rates and other external risks.
The Filipino market’s strong appetite for residential properties can be seen in the high traffic of visitors on its website, an online marketplace for properties.
In a briefing Wednesday, Dot Property Philippines Country Manager Tanya Kristina Yu said 68 percent of visitors to their website came from the Philippines.
Yu added that the countries where there are many overseas Filipinos, such as the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Japan, and Qatar, are among the sources of visitors to its website.
Yu also noted that Dot Property, a unit of Madrid-based Mitula group, recorded more than one million online visitors in the country in May and June this year, in which more than 60 percent of the visitors are aged 25 years to 36 years old finding a property to rent or purchase.
However, she said that through the website, property seekers are able to compare the rates of the property. Some consider buying the place rather than renting it, especially if there is little difference between the monthly rental rates and the mortgage.
Dot Property Editor-in Chief Cheyenne Hollis said the Philippines maintains good macroeconomic fundamentals with healthy gross domestic product growth. “We’ve seen a lot of developers building. (The) ‘Build Build Build’ is obviously a huge thing in the real estate market, as well as in business in general,” said Hollis.
“There’s always some uncertainties from foreign investors in emerging markets. But in the Philippines, we just don’t see that right now. We see everything is solid. We are very confident moving forward that the market will continue to perform well,” he added.
The Dot Property Group, he said, has yet to see the impact of the central bank’s tightening of its key policy rates. “At the moment, it’s too early what kind of impact it will have, given how the market is performing and given other key sort of market facts and figures moving forward,” Hollis said.
“Just because there are lot of people who do have broad income, obviously income is growing; so, that will possibly negate any sort of great increases (in interest rates),” he added.
Dot Property operates its property portal in nine Southeast Asian countries — the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. (Kris Crismundo/PNA)
